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REACTIONISM 


THE SCIENCE OF YOU 


BY 

JOHN D. BOYLE v 

H 





j j J 


> 


1 


■> 


G.P. Putnam’s Sons 

T^JewYork & London 
Knickerbocker Press 





X 


Copyright, 1923 
by 

John D. Boyle 




Made in the United States of America 



JUl. 19 i323 V 




PREFACE 


ME 

Since my earliest years, human beings have 
exercised a great fascination for me. As a youth 
the forces that motivated them engaged my lively 
curiosity, and at an early age I was poring over 
the complex reasonings of Descartes, Locke, 
Berkeley, Hume and others who had ventured into 
the immense study of mind. 

At the age of nineteen, I ventured to give lec¬ 
tures upon various psychological subjects; and, 
thanks to the very general lack of understanding 
of things mental, I found my explanations well 
received by others, though in my own mind, I knew 
that my knowledge was scanty indeed. 

The idea that led at last to the publication of 
the present effort was this: That the world, being 
subject to the laws of the universe, contains, if we 
could but understand and know, the entire princi¬ 
ple of universal law, and that the human mind is 

• • • 
in 


/ 


PREFACE 


governed in its every manifestation by laws as 
certain as the laws of heat or motion. I felt that 
there must be some basic principle which could be 
known by the same mental process by which we 
know the force of motion, and it is such a system 
that I have at last observed in what I call the theory 
of life ether. 

Not being a psychologist in the accepted sense, 
my profession being a writer and diagnostician of 
advertising, there may be some lack of scientific 
verbiage in this discussion. However, I find that 
most folk share in this deficiency, and so I feel 
that the effort may perhaps serve them better if 
expressed in the simpler language of one to whom 
people are a wonderful hobby, rather than objects 
of vivisection purely, 

I am sorry to say that there is a moral in this 
book—for it is impossible to divide mental and 
moral laws. Understanding of others always cre¬ 
ates love of others. More perfect reason always 
creates a finer sense of justice. Knowledge of life 
and its laws cannot help but show the eternal nature 
of life. So that although I talk in terms of fact 
rather than of faith, the latter cannot help to come 
home to you in greater measure than before. 


IV 


PREFACE 


The atheist, especially he who nurtures and 
fondles his atheism because of his smug vanity in 
feeling that he is thereby unique and superior, I 
advise not to read this book. For if he does, he can 
no longer be an atheist and still claim the ability to 
reason. To deny his future life he must deny his 
existence now. 

I could say quite a little more, but since your 
interest in me is very small I will commence the 
more absorbing subject of yourself. I only hope 
you will derive the inspiration from it that I obtain 
in presenting it to you. 


Boyle 



CONTENTS 


Preface.—Me .... 

• 

0 

« 

• • ♦ 
111 

PART I 





REACTIONISM 





THE SCIENCE OF YOU 





Introduction.—Y ou .... 




3 

CHAPTES 

I.—Your Self 




PAGE 

9 

II.—Your Reality . 




15 

III. —Your Brain 




19 

IY.—Your Physical World 




25 

V.—Your Mind 




29 

VI.—Your Life Ether 




35 

VII.—Your Future Life 




53 

VIII.—Your Mental Forces 




65 

IX. —Your Reactions 




75 

X. —Your Purposes . 




89 

XI. —Your Character 

• 



95 

XII. —Your Attention 

• 

• 


99 


• • 
Vll 





CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XIII.- 

-Your Will .... 

PAGE 

. 103 

XIV.- 

-Your Instinct .... 

. 107 

XV.- 

-Your Emotion .... 

. Ill 

XVI.- 

-Your Power of Suggestion 

. 115 

XVII.- 

-Your Mental Strengths . 

. 123 


PART II 

REACTION ALYS1S 

THE SELF APPLICATION OF REACTIONISM 


XVIII.—Introduction . . . . .129 

XIX.—First Day—My Mind . . .133 

XX.—Second Day—My Mental Forces . 135 

XXI.—Third Day—My Mental World . 137 

XXII.—Fourth Day—My Character . .139 

XXIII.—Fifth Day—My Attention . .141 

XXIV.—Sixth Day—My Interest . . .143 

XXV.—Seventh Day—My Observation . 145 

XXVI.—Eighth Day—My Selection . .147 

XXVII.—Ninth Day—My Memory . . .149 

XXVIII.—Tenth Day—My Information . .151 

XXIX.—Eleventh Day—My Imagination . 153 

XXX.—Twelfth Day—My Reason . .155 


XXXI.— Thirteenth Day- —My Discernment 

• • • 

Vlll 


157 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XXXII. —Fourteenth Day—My Understand¬ 
ing ....... 

XXXIII. —Fifteenth Day—My Instinct . 

XXXIV. —Sixteenth Day—My Foresight 

XXXV. —Seventeenth Day—My Emotion 

XXXVI. —Eighteenth Day—My Cheerfulness 

XXXVII. —Nineteenth Day—My Will 

XXXVIII. —Twentieth Day—My Courage . 

XXXIX. —Twenty-first Day—My Discretion 

XL. —Twenty-second Day—My Humility 

XLI. —Twenty-third Day—My Purposes . 

XLII. —Twenty-fourth Day—My Work 

XLIII. —Twenty-fifth Day—My Knowledge 

XLIV. —Twenty-sixth Day—My Experience 

XLV. —Twenty-seventh Day—My Success . 

XLVI. —Twenty-eighth Day—My Careful- 

NESS •••••• 

XLVII. —Twenty-ninth Day—My Earnest- 

NESS • ••••• 

XLVIII. —Thirtieth Day—My Self-Conscious- 

NESS •••••• 

XLIX. —Thirty-first Day—My Poise 
L. —Thirty-second Day—My Habits 
LI. —Thirty-third Day—My Confession . 


PAGE 

159 

161 

163 

165 

167 

169 

171 

173 

175 

177 

179 

181 

183 

185 

187 

189 

191 

193 

195 

197 


IX 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

LII.—Thirty-fourth Day— My Duty 
LIII.—Thirty-fifth Day— My Power 
LIV.—Thirty-sixth Day— My Disposition . 
LV.—Thirty-seventh Day— My Natural- 

NESS •••••• 

LVI. —Thirty-eighth Day— My Imperfec¬ 
tions ...... 

LVII.—Thirty-ninth Day—My Persistence 

LVIII.—Fortieth Day—My Effort 

LIX.—Forty-first Day — My Inflexibility 

LX.—Forty-second Day— My Recreation 

LXI.—Forty-third Day — My Inspiration . 

LXII.—Forty-fourth Day—My Opinions . 

LXIII.—Forty-fifth Day— My Delibera¬ 
tion ...... 

LXIV.—Forty-sixth Day— My Future 

LXV.—Forty-seventh Day—My Security 

LXVI.—Forty-eighth Day— My Faith 

LXVII.—Forty-ninth Day— My Aspiration . 

LXVIII.—Fiftieth Day— My Love . 


X 


PAGE 

199 

201 

203 

205 

207 

209 

211 

213 

215 

217 

219 

221 

223 

225 

227 

229 

231 


PART I 

REACTIONISM 

THE SCIENCE OF YOU 


1 





























INTRODUCTION 


YOU 

First of all, I am interested in you. You have 
bought my book or you honor me by reading it, 
though I may give you nothing more than you now 
possess. You may not be aware of your posses¬ 
sions, and I may have the pleasure of discovering 
them for you, but I may never know how im¬ 
mensely rich they are nor how much joy and 
happiness you gain from them. Never have I 
met any one in whom I could not find something 
to enjoy and think about and like—for just to 
try to understand others is to find riches in friend¬ 
ships and wealth in comradeship. 

I know more about you than you would think, 

since we have not met, and as far as I can I will 

* • 

try to dissect you so that you may know yourself 
better than before, and knowing yourself, know 
others and the forces that govern them. 

And is it not true that when we just honestly 

3 


REACTIONISM 


know ourselves and act in accord with our clearest 
eyed judgments that we are happiest? I know a 
man who believes that the schemer is the one who 
can obtain the most in life, and so he schemes all 
things, feeling he is very shrewd. But he also 
feels that others are schemers, too, and he is always 
hunting behind their most frank and honest state¬ 
ments for the trickery he feels must be there. So 
it is that the truest people he comes in contact with 
are the most shrewd in his judgment, for he can¬ 
not see through them hunting as he does the things 
that do not exist. This man is not liked very much, 
but the few who understand him get along very 
well with him, for they can leave something unsaid 
for him to guess at, and this makes him feel that 
he is very deep and very perspicacious. 

We are so much simpler and more transparent 
than we ever guess, and often others do see us with 
far greater clarity than our vanity permits. 

Your mind is much easier to understand than 
you now think. All things simplify themselves as 
their component parts and their relation to other 
things are understood. There is no mystery about 
mind. It is a natural operation, as understanding 

of it will show. Do you suppose that there are 

4 


YOU 


laws which contravene those visible to the mind on 
earth? Do you suppose that the security and 
permanence of these laws can ever be questioned? 
And so with mind. Its laws are as certain as the 
laws of nature. Its results are as certain as the 
manifestations of nature. 

All we need to do is to know and obey them, 
when we find, like a wonderful revelation, that our 
worries and fears are groundless and that life is 
simple and free and full of hope. The petty things 
are seen as petty. The fine things are seen as fine. 
Just truth, but what a power it wields to guide and 
strengthen us. 

As there is no principle of the universe to which 
the earth is not subject, so on earth have we the 
meanings of all things, could we hut grasp them. 
Slowly we understand, and discover, but the Great 
Discoverer has ever preceded us, and so may we 
explore with freedom, knowing that the search for 
knowledge is a human privilege. 

Time was when analysis of one’s mind was 
considered an irreligious peering into the ways of 
God, but truth gradually destroys the disrespect 
of superstition. Today we find in greater know¬ 
ledge and understanding a clearer conception of 

5 


REACTIONISM 


the limitless power and intelligence of the Al¬ 
mighty. We find above all that great humility 
which is bred in recognition of powers which guide 
us and give us being, but which we never transcend. 

Mother Nature is sometimes very subtle in the 
way she secures her ends. You and I feel that we 
are masters of our own actions, and to a certain 
degree we are, but you will still notice that people 
love and marry, hope and hate throughout the ages. 
You will also notice that we eat and sleep and 
work and play and have a great number of other 
customs in common which are not ordained by our¬ 
selves. 

Sometimes w T e seem to be lifted up to a new 
plane of observation, and we view our own inten¬ 
sities with the humor and paternal tolerance they 
then deserve. Our exaggeration of values is very 
amusing, when we are not absorbed with the 
seriousness and pathos of reality. 

These experiences, these intense purposes and 
anxious hopes, we have in common, but there are 
mental forces which combat these intensities if we 
wish to exercise them. 

The laws that govern your nature and your mind 

are no different from the laws which govern the 

6 


YOU 


thoughts of other people. Knowledge of these 
laws will give you an insight into your actions that 
will simplify your entire understanding of your¬ 
self and will enable you to obey the laws of your 
mind. 

Y^ou are a wonderful being—an intelligent, 
thinking being—but only knowledge of the limi¬ 
tations of your powers will lay a true basis for 
their greatest exercise. Obedience is the measure 
of mastery! 

Obedience to the laws of physics has built 
bridges, made birds of men, transported voice for 
thousands of miles through the air. Obedience to 
the laws of physics will some day transport faces as 
it does voices, for light vibrations are no stranger 
than the vibrations of sound! It will some day 
make gold, for as the actions of nature are fore¬ 
told for hundreds of years in astronomy so it is no 
stranger to foretell the actions of nature in 
chemistry. 

Obedience to the laws of mind can make of 
mediocrity mental power; and of mental inertia, 
inspiration. Obedience to the laws of mind can 
give understanding of other minds, removing dis¬ 
putes, inspiring action, foretelling results. 

7 



REACTIONISM 


Obedience to the laws of your mind can give you 
power, happiness, vision, courage and the greatest 
of all strengths, the strength of resignation. 

Your mind is a delicate instrument which even 
the most careful of us see imperfectly; we grasp 
only a fraction of its wide extent. Many are the 
observations still to be made; many the truths still 
obscured, but much has been achieved in under¬ 
standing and great is the need for this knowledge. 
Too little is still known. Too easily do the latest 
mental “sciences,” “cures” and fictions find a hold. 
Too long has a sounder viewpoint in understand¬ 
able language been delayed. 

It is believed that Reactionism will give you a 
deeper understanding of yourself. Frankly, can 
there be a subject of greater interest? 


8 


CHAPTER I 


YOUR SELF 

No matter whether your name is John or Mary, 
you know yourself for yourself—well, that is, you 
know you have a name, a sex, that you were born 
of certain people, in a certain place, that you have 
lived at this house or that house, that you have done 
this or that and you contemplate doing this or that. 
In other words, your idea of yourself is an idea of 
other things! 

Even your imagination—wonderful, limitless 
thing—is but a sequence of mile-a-minute pictures 
of places and of actions; and even these actions 
are directed toward things—material things— 
physical sounds like words or physical acts like 
sleeping. 

Even your emotion—strange, dominating power 
—is hut a sensation understandable only in 

terms of other things or folks. Your love—how 

9 



REACTIONISM 


meaningless it is when it is not directed to another. 
Your hope—how empty is it when no picture of 
physical satisfaction occurs. Your faith—how im¬ 
possible it is when you cannot imagine your God. 

And so your mind, as far as you can see it, is 
only a number of perceptions and actions given 
meaning by the real things without. These objects, 
these motions, these forces that you know or con¬ 
clude by means of your five senses are the things 
of which you are conscious—but your conscious¬ 
ness itself, you ask—and thus we come to what is 
really your mind. 

When we are unaccustomed to self examination 
we feel helpless before this wonderful power of 
ours, this consciousness, this marvelous self, so 
strange, so complex and so inexplicable at first. 
But while it is a power that is beyond complete 
explanation so is it one that we can understand 
very largely by comparing it to those equally in¬ 
explicable forces that we see in nature. 

Let us picture a billiard table—this is enough to 
create in your mind the green of the cloth, the 
white shining balls, the vague surroundings which 
as I speak of them take shape. Now picture the 

lights above the table, and the illusion is complete. 

10 



YOUR SELF 


There are many ideas that come to you of which 
I am not aware. For instance, you probably know 
the location of the billiard table, the color of its 
woodwork, the position of the balls; you may also 
picture certain individuals that stand by it, and so 
on—for these things, if they are in your experi¬ 
ence, must come to your mind with more or less 
clarity. 

But now picture the player. His eye along the 
cue. He propels the ball. It hits another, re¬ 
bounds on the cushions and ever more slowly 
approaches a third ball—no, he missed. 

If you are a billiard enthusiast and if the time 
and other considerations are proper, you now feel 
a desire to drop this book and play! Your interest 
of a paragraph or two ago is now diminished and 
the thought of a game allures. But you will 
hardly do it, for even the game cannot vie with 
your interest in yourself. 

But now, in the motion of the billiard ball: There 
was no power within itself to move. The player 
gave it Motion, but once it was given the force of 
motion it continued to roll until the counteracting 
forces of friction and gravity absorbed its power. 

The motion did not become apparent until the ball 

11 


REACTIONISM 


moved—motion, the force, required the ball, the 
object of its force, to manifest itself. And no 
force in nature is observable to us except in its 
movement of physical things. 

This, you say, is obvious: power is certainly im¬ 
potent if there is nothing upon which to exercise 
itself. What sense is there in force or energy if 
there is no resistance to overcome? 

And you are right—and in this observation of 
yours is the only rational viewpoint of your mind. 
What reason for consciousness, if there is nothing 
to be conscious of? What sense in awareness if 
there is nothing beneath this faculty of which to be 
aware. 

Your consciousness is therefore the force—like 
the motion in the balls—which under certain con¬ 
ditions is imparted to some non-mental agency of 
which we will speak later. 

The motion which we saw in the billiard ball is 
part of the total energy in Nature, which scientists 
have proven may change its form as it is communi¬ 
cated to various kinds of matter. In other words 
we may trace back the motion to the muscles of 
the player, thence to the nourishment he had to 
have to give power to his muscles, thence to the 

n 




YOUR SELF 


growing grain, the labor of the farmer, and so on, 
and we will see the actions of many energies— 
chemical, electrical, gravity—all of which have 
lent their aid in the ultimate motion of the sphere 
by their changing one into another. 

Similarly with mind, we have a variety of forces: 
Will and Attention, Judgment and Imagination 
—and we easily see that these may change one into 
another. If we Reason, we create new forces of 
Understanding. This new energy of understand¬ 
ing in turn creates a force of interest, which again 
may change to the power of attention, emotion or 
pleasure. 

While it is speculative to say what energy is, we 
still can direct it to new objects. We may create a 
new kind of energy, converting, say, the chemical 
action of the contents of a battery into the electrical 
energy of a wire. 

And so with mind. We do not need to inquire 
into consciousness in order to formulate laws gov¬ 
erning the forms consciousness may take. 

Before the wire is magnetized it is a thing with¬ 
out electrical force. In the same way, before a 
previously known idea is recalled by you, it is a 
thing without conscious force. 




REACTIONISM 


In the case of the wire, its electrical energy will 
attempt to seek an outlet. In the case of your 
mind, the idea recalled by you will also attempt to 
seek an outlet. 

The energies of nature are manifest in the reac¬ 
tions of the objects in nature. The energy of con¬ 
sciousness is manifest in the reactions of ideas. 

The reactions of your mind form your indi¬ 
viduality. Your experiences and the way you 
react to them, form your character. To you is 
left the way in which you may react, but there are 
many restrictions which you may never overcome; 
restrictions, too, of your own creation. One of the 
important limitations is your demand for reality. 


14 


I 


CHAPTER II 

YOUR REALITY 

You would never admit that you do not exist, 
though some profound philosophers have tried to 
deny you material reality. You think, so yo'u 
exist, said cautious Descartes. But you believe you 
are a real being, not only because you think but 
because you find confirmation in Nature. If you 
shut your eyes and imagine your hand, the mental 
picture is indistinct and unreal. Now open your 
eyes and add the physical forces of light to the 
mental force of imagination or perception, and lo! 
there is a real hand. 

Further than this, however, you appreciate that 
things only affect you as they seem real. In your 
dream, you have a greater sense of reality of 
imagined things than you have when awake. In 
your nightmare the sense of reality is strong, 
making you perspire with the effort of running, or 

15 


REACTIONISM 


making your heart palpitate as you grapple with 
the robber. To a higher degree even than this, 
does the sense of reality come to the hypnotized 
subject when he is told that he is a maiden fair. 
But never is the sense of reality so strong as when 
you are in contact with the objects of your sense 
or the conclusions of your reason. 

But, as experiment has shown, a man in a hyp¬ 
notic state cannot be forced to destroy himself, nor 
will he commit a serious crime. There always re¬ 
mains a spark of consciousness by which he senses 
the unreality of his role, just as there is always a 
waking force of consciousness to guide the sleep¬ 
walker, enabling him to distinguish the real from 
the unreal. Even the lunatic who says with empha¬ 
sis, “I am Napoleon,” recognizes his fiction and 
naively betrays it in his very emphasis. 

We conceive ourselves as real beings and we see 
the objects of our senses and the movements of our 
muscles as real things. Any ideas beyond this, 
unless they be based on conclusions reached from 
these sources, or unless they are the only opinion 
we can draw from previous conclusions, seem 
unreal to us and are refuted. 

If you can destroy the reality of an idea you de- 

16 


YOUR REALITY 


stroy its entire sensory, active and emotional effect. 
If your love is considered as an unreal thing, noth¬ 
ing is left but an abstract idea of love—the empty, 
meaningless shell. Even the reality of art must be 
felt to make its unreality of aesthetic value. We be¬ 
lieve the real thing, and know the unreal thing as a 
chimera of our imagination. We classify all things 
as real or unreal, as true or untrue, as existing or 
nonexisting. 

Matter exists, and it does not require philosophy 
to demonstrate it to the man who can see the nail 
or the hammer. And natural forces exist, as any 
man will agree who has mistaken his finger for the 
nail. 

Mind exists as every conscious being must admit, 
unless they deny the existence of the very thoughts 
by which they make the denial. Finally, Self ex¬ 
ists, for you cannot see my idea, or I yours. You 
are apart from me, moved by your consciousness, 
not mine. 

This desire on your part to make things real to 
yourself is one of the important laws of mind. The 
greater reality things have for you, the more they 
influence you. Could you invest the experiences 

of others with the same acute sense of reality you 

17 


REACTIONISM 


give to your own experiences you would have a tre¬ 
mendously larger source of experience upon which 
to draw. But as the child does not know the reality 
of heat until it touches the stove, so we adults give 
but part reality to the lessons of history or bio¬ 
graphy. The youth does not heed the advice of his 
elders, for he is not adept enough to think a reality 
he has not felt. He cannot feel their experiences 
with the force he would know were he placed in a 
like situation. 

We know we think, because we find confirmation 
in the world and people around us. In our every 
thought we recognize the necessity of reviewing our 
conclusions in the light of the outside world. Our 
imaginations are unlimited in the pictures they can 
draw, or the ideas they can conjure, but we know 
how absurd our unfettered imaginations may be, 
real as is their existence. So we turn to reason and 
judgment to check them, while reason in turn looks 
to the outside world for facts and ideas by which 
it may turn imagination into constructive channels. 

As we shall see, the desire for reality is the 
principle of mind by which need for a brain and 
body is justified. 


18 


CHAPTER III 


YOUR BRAIN 

You do not think with your brain and psy¬ 
chology has too long suffered from the fact that 
an exaggerated importance has been given to this 
complex organ. 

If you will to move your arm and it moves in 
response to your thought, it is a blind conclusion 
that states that your mental force of will is turned 
into the physical force of motion. If your arm 
had been immovably bandaged for a month and the 
bandages then removed, you would not be able to 
move your arm at will, but still the same force of 
will would exist. 

Similarly if you had been confined to your bed 
by illness, and had been unable to take nourish¬ 
ment, all the forces of your mind would be unable 
to raise your body from the bed. 

The physical actions of your body are caused 

by the physical energy latent in the food you eat 

19 


REACTIONISM 


and the water you drink. Your mind has power of 
direction only and never of cause. Mental forces 
are not interchangeable with physical forces. 

Your brain is as physical as your arms or legs. 
It is given energy only by physical forces and 
never by mental forces. The man who has from 
birth been blind possesses no conception of light, 
not because his mind is impaired, but because he has 
no physical agency for the transmission of this 
physical energy. If you remove certain parts of 
two men’s brains at the rear of the head they will 
each lose the power of sight, but they will not lose 
memory of lights. And he who has been blind 
from birth will still believe in light and sights from 
the description of his friends. Who can deny that 
his understanding of visualized beauties may not 
transcend that of the man whose eyes are perfect? 

The brain has nothing to do with mind except 
as the forces that come to it are directed by mind. 
The nervous system is but a receiving and sending 
agency for the physical forces of heat, motion or 
chemical affinity of which the brain is the central 
organ. The forces that come to the brain may be 
directed or diverted, but never destroyed by the 
mind. 


20 


YOUR BRAIN 


If the mind elects not to direct a physical force, 
the energy will traverse the channels through 
which mind has previously directed it, giving us 
the unconscious or semi-conscious actions of walk¬ 
ing, moving the eyes in reading or the mouth in 
talking. To this degree alone does the brain be¬ 
come a source of action without the assistance of 
mind. 

The brain is not conscious. You may destroy a 
man’s sense of reality in things seen by removing 
a portion of his brain, but you do not destroy his 
consciousness of sights described to him. 

Nor is the brain the storehouse of our memories. 
For, without consciousness, unaffected by con¬ 
sciousness, and subject only to physical forces, the 
brain can perform no greater function than that 
of a vehicle of transmission of physical forces. If 
the brain were the seat of memory, mind, to re¬ 
member a thing, would have to guide the physical 
force to the particular cell of the brain. This pre¬ 
supposes that it knows the object of the search 
before the brain is even motivated! 

The brain is a limitation of memory rather than 
a cause of it. If we relax and use no physical effort 
we find our memories clearer. In age, sickness or 

21 


REACTIONISM 


at the moment preceding death, when the physical 
organism is at its lowest ebb, memories pour into 
mind with a rapidity and clarity that is amazing. 
Under the spell of drugs which atrophy the brain 
we may remember incidents entirely beyond recall 
when our brains are active. 

What, then, the purpose or value of the brain ? 
Why this complex apparatus? The answer is this: 

By its nature mind seeks Reality, the existence 
of things; and Truth, the relation of existing 
things. 

Mind, of itself, feels itself to be real. But it 
finds no Truth in its reality except by confirmation 
of its relation to other things and forces. In man, 
mind is given the assistance of a brain to change 
vibrations into sights and movements into feelings 
and substances into tastes. 

This very force of reality, the mind’s necessity 
of this force, makes it necessary for the mind 
largely to limit its observations to the forces which 
affect the brain. The formation of a real person¬ 
ality, demands that the objects and actions of the 
personality be real. Therefore the brain is our 
source of real sensations and the vehicle of real ac¬ 
tions, and as such limits the mind; but only by the 

22 


YOUR BRAIN 


volition of mind and never by an act or cause of 
the brain. 

But, you say, many relations exist between mind 
and brain. The mind may be aware of the in¬ 
fluences and real objects which affect the brain. 
And the mind, by its direction of physical force, 
may control the dispositions lodged in the brain. 
If the mind can direct physical force, then there 
must be some connection. What is it? 

Before we answer this, let us turn to a study 
first of this world of matter and energy in which we 
live and then of our world of mind, knowing more 
of the connections of our ideas. 


23 


CHAPTER IV 


YOUR PHYSICAL WORLD 

Motion, gravity, heat, chemical affinity—all 
natural forces—are invisible and inexplicable to 
man. They are known only by their action upon 
matter: by falling streams, by changes in the dens¬ 
ity of air which we call a rise in temperature, by 
the attraction of matter to matter. 

We know nothing of matter at rest. Matter is 
always subject to this or that kind of energy. The 
earth itself is in motion, and all that is in it. Since 
we must believe that matter as it exists upon earth 
so exists everywhere, we must also believe that 
matter everywhere is always and constantly subject 
to energy. 

We speak of different kinds of energy, but we 
will see that we can find no difference in energy, 
except as it is manifest in different kinds of matter. 
If we drop a stone to observe the force of gravity, 

we know that gravity expends itself as the stone 

25 


REACTIONISM 


falls, while new forces of motion, heat and friction 
are generated, which are of exactly the same 
amount as the gravity force which is used up. The 
quantity of energy never changes, no matter how it 
may change its form, and it never changes its form 
except as it finds resistance in matter. The action 
of energy upon matter finds a reaction which is 
both a change in the kind of energy and in the 
relation of matter. 

There is no connection between one form of 
energy and another. The force of motion in a bil¬ 
liard ball has no connection, as a force apart from 
matter, with the force of gravity exerted upon the 
table. All connection between forces is by means 
of matter. Thus if a moving ball hits another and 
puts it in motion, the motion of the second ball has 
no connection with the motion of the first but was 
created by the contact of the balls—of matter. The 
force of friction created by the motion of the balls 
and evidenced in the faster motion of the particles 
of air and of cloth, in turn was created by the action 
of matter upon matter. The relationship of energy 
therefore can only occur through the relationship 
of matter. There is no connection between forces, 

except as there is connection of matter. 

26 


YOUR PHYSICAL WORLD 


[The only relation in nature is that of matter, and 
because there is an observable harmony in all 
natural manifestations, it may be stated as a law 
that: Matter in any form is related to matter in 
all other forms. 

To prove this untrue, it is but necessary to sho>v 
any types of matter which are unconnected to other 
types. And the chemist will demonstrate that 
matter, when reduced to its smallest units, will 
show a unified system between its basic elements. 
So mathematically perfect is this connection that 
elements have been almost exactly described even 
before they have been discovered, as in the case of 
Mendeleeff whose prediction as to the properties of 
germanium were later substantially confirmed. All 
matter is related, particle with particle, and though 
energy may change the relationship, it can only 
do so by forming new relationships between the 
particles. 

To show the relationship between matter and 
energy, let us consider sound, which is manifest in 
the vibrations of air (by alternate condensations 
and rarefications). A soundproof room is an air¬ 
proof room, Because of the nature of its physical 

medium, air, sound travels at the rate of 30 to 

27 


REACTIONISM 


8,000 vibrations a second when perceived by the 
human ear. Now consider light which is a vibra¬ 
tion of a finer form of matter (luminiferous ether) 
and we find the terrific speed of 800 million million 
vibrations per second when perceived by the human 
eye. 

And now to consider consciousness, with its 
speed and scope, its rapidity of change, its tre¬ 
mendousness of capacity, the question confronts 
us: What form, what fineness, what nature of mat¬ 
ter, if any, is the medium of the energy of thought? 
Luminiferous ether permeates the interplanetary 
space; Planets travel through it with ease and 
rapidity. The earth penetrates it at the rate of 19 
miles per second. There seem to be few limitations 
upon it. What then of the substance by which con¬ 
sciousness is connected? 


28 


CHAPTER V 


YOUR MIND 

With these facts of natural energy before us 
let us consider your mind. Its power to will. Its 
faculty of reasoning. You instantly recognize 
that your mind is a form of energy. Different from 
natural energies, truly, for natural force is mani¬ 
fest only in matter, it cannot be seen or felt but 
only understood or guessed at as it moves matter; 
while your mental force is itself felt and if it moti¬ 
vates matter you are certainly unaware of the 
matter. 

You see your hand moving or your legs walking 
and you feel that the force that energizes them is 
your will, but, as we have already seen, you also 
know that if you cannot take nourishment and be¬ 
come weak, your legs will not obey your will. In 
other words, it was physical force, generated by 
food, that moved them, and only the guidance of 

this physical force was left to your will. 

29 


REACTIONISM 


Therefore the forces of your mind are limited 
to the guidance of your body, not its motivation. 

If you look at a rolling ball, you do not see it 
move. You only see it disappear from a certain 
point as it appears at a new point. The power of 
sight never sees moving objects but only objects 
in various changed positions. From this the mind 
concludes: first, that the object is the same in each 
new position and, second, that it has rolled through 
the intervening space, rather than ceased to exist in 
one spot and been created in the next. The idea 
of motion or any physical force is thus a mental 
creation given reality by the necessity of this con¬ 
clusion. 

The conception of motion is therefore not a 
conception of the brain but of the mind; and if we 
limit our study of the mind at this point to motions 
or other forces we shall be better able to see that 
the mind as we now study it is entirely apart from 
the brain. 

Some time in your youth, you conceived the idea 
of motion. Thereafter it remained with you as a 
memory. It is not a new thing to you for you feel 
that you have thought of it before. You have a 
memory for motion. 


30 


i 


YOUR MIND 


But the idea of motion is a mental thing and not 
an action of the brain, so that your memory of 
motion has not existed in your brain. 

Nevertheless it has existed somewhere, for your 
idea of motion today has not been continually in 
your mind since yesterday or the day or month 
before. 

It has not existed in the mind or in the brain. 

Similarly your ideas of hope or faith or attention 
—all of them mental, not brain, creations—are of a 
certain character within you. Your ability to think 
them whenever you wish, while you may forget 
them whenever you do not wish to recall them, 
certainly shows that the disposition exists some¬ 
where for their reproduction. If not the brain nor 
the mind—where? 

Still another observation before this answer: 
You believe that Love and Faith are good qualities, 
that Hate and Despair are injurious forces. In 
other words, your ideas are connected to other 
ideas. But none of these beliefs have been created 
by the brain or are a reasoning process of the brain. 
They cannot be seen or felt or heard. They were 
created by your mind. They were thoughts purely. 

But once the thought has existed and then been 

31 


REACTIONISM 


forgotten you find that the thought of love awakens 
the idea of its being a good quality. In other 
words, the disposition to remember ideas in rela¬ 
tion to other ideas exists somewhere, but not in 
mind or brain. 

No idea as a purely mental thing has any con¬ 
nection with another idea. The connection exists 
in some other agency, for your idea of love and 
your idea of good were two mental creations, find¬ 
ing a connection by a third idea, expressed in the 
thought love is good. No one of these three ideas 
has any mental connection with any other one. 
The connection exists not in mind or brain but in 
some further agency. 

In physical things, we see only the objects which 
we call forms of matter. We realize that these 
forms of matter are moved and their relationships 
changed by physical forces, but we can only grasp 
the reality of these forces by an act of the mind. 
We never see them. 

When we examine mind, however, we find the 
situation is reversed. We are aware that mental 
forces are at work in all our thoughts because we 

feel them, while we are never aware of the mental 

32 


YOUR MIND 


matter which retains the dispositon by which we 
remember. 

In the one case, we see the matter and conclude 
that forces move or change it; in the other case we 
feel the forces and conclude that matter is moved 
or changed by it; since memory exists for abstract 
ideas. This matter Reactionism calls Life ether. 


33 


CHAPTER VI 

YOUR LIFE ETHER 

Throughout the universe exists an ether so 
fine that it may pass through all other substances. 
It is not subject to any matter nor can it affect 
any matter. 

It is related to itself, and there is no sensation 
or thought, no idea or hope for which there is not 
a counterpart in the form of a particle or combi¬ 
nation of particles of life ether. 

Consciousness is the process of discovery of the 
latent idea in ether. Motion, if it could think, could 
feel the stone or stream or marble. So conscious¬ 
ness motivates ether, finding itself only through the 
already existing nature of ether. 

Operating by ether, consciousness is limited in 
all its directions by ether and can not transcend 
the relation it finds existing. If you give motion 

to the billiard balls, their position when they 

35 


REACTIONISM 


come to rest determines the point where mo¬ 
tion must next be given them. Similarly when 
consciousness has become aware of a group of 
ether particles, this enlarged knowledge governs 
the point where consciousness will next activate 
them. The only difference is that the balls govern 
motion in its relation to space, whereas ether gov¬ 
erns consciousness in its relation to meanings. 

Your thoughts are limited or extended by your 
previous thoughts, but your consciousnes is not 
limited in its power to add to any previous thought, 
for ever new consciousness of new relations of ether 
takes place. 

Ether is a form of matter whose nature is subject 
to discovery only by mental force. Without men¬ 
tal force it retains a latent consciousness which is 
unconscious, as oil or coal retains a latent form of 
heat which is not hot. 

Life ether is an universal substance, unmovable, 
unbreakable, unchangeable by physical force or 
matter. Physical force or matter may go through 
it, without changing its relation, as a pane of glass 
may pass through light without changing its rela¬ 
tion. 

To ether, however, Reactionism gives the power 

36 


YOUR LIFE ETHER 


of awareness when motivated by consciousness and 
awareness does not necessitate any change upon or 
resistance to physical force or matter. 

The connection between mind and brain—or, 
more properly between ether and brain—is one of 
coexistence. Ether thus may be conceived as more 
of a spiritual than a physical substance; and it 
will complete the trinity of man when we see that 
this substance is the basis of life itself. That life 
is manifest in this spiritual matter which exists 
everywhere, which retains a latent consciousness, 
which is the connecting principle of living organ¬ 
isms and of thought, which is indivisible from 
consciousness; indivisible from the whole universe 
or from the individual man. 

There might be one objection raised to the prin¬ 
ciple of life ether which would be stated as fol¬ 
lows : 

If coexistence is the only connection between 
mind and brain, how is even the direction of physi¬ 
cal force controlled by mind? 

The answer becomes clear when we approach the 
problem by considering the individual organisms 
that make up the human body. The physical mat¬ 
ter of each organism is coexistent with life ether. 

37 


REACTIONISM 


We saw in life ether the relation of particles. 
Coexistence of each particle with each particle of 
physical matter is a necessary conclusion to co¬ 
existence of the sum. 

If now physical matter exists in time and space 
with certain units of life ether, its relations to it¬ 
self are the same as the relations of life ether to 
itself. This order in animate matter is unchange¬ 
able as long as it coexists with ether; and physical 
forces are governed by this relationship and can¬ 
not change it. 

The direction by mind of physical forces is there¬ 
fore through the coexisting relations of physical 
matter. 

Life is perfect, and the relations of ether by 
which it manifests itself are perfect. Life is our 
highest force. Mind, which is life’s awareness of 
itself, may be incomplete and may therefore be 
imperfect. 

Mind never changes the relation of life ether, 
it only discovers it. Mind cannot change the co¬ 
existent matter, or the coexisting action of physical 
force. There is in other words a corresponding 
mental conscious force for every physical force; 
they coexist. As humans, we control a slight 

38 


YOUR LIFE ETHER 


amount of conscious force. Only the Almighty 
Consciousness controls the total forces of Nature. 

Consciousness in man, however, is a matter of 
growth; whereas physical forces are fixed. Con¬ 
sciousness is subject to error in associating of its 
facts. But consciousness ever seeks reality, which 
is its adjustment to the fixed laws of nature. The 
perfect consciousness may transcend these laws 
in a sense only by a perfect obedience to them. The 
function of the brain is to serve as a channel for the 
flow of physical forces. The mind can direct them 
only insofar as it subjects itself to its own laws 
which are coexistent with external laws. 

Understanding is a growth, while physical laws 
are fixed. It is a law' of mind to grow as it is a 
physical law to evolve new combinations of matter. 

While mind can refuse to cognize reality, it can 
do so only by acknowledging unreality. While the 
existence of real things can be denied, it is possible 
only by denial. This requires, however, the act of 
denial or, in other words, the first assumption of 
reality. It is an attempt to destroy a belief with a 
belief, which is impossible without denying the very 
existence of the power to think. 

If we consider that life ether is in a related form 

39 


REACTIONISM 


within the individual, then we must see that each 
animate cell can have connection with another liv¬ 
ing cell only through the means of life ether. 

If we choose to become aware of hunger and our 
conscious process proceeds to make a decision to 
eat, the physical forces set in motion will coexist 
with each change of mental force. With our de¬ 
cision to eat, the physical forces will become mani¬ 
fest in the movement of eating. 

Through all our mental processes are coexisting 
interchanges of physical force, and hard to grasp 
as such a coexistence may be, it still is no stranger 
than the coexistence of motion and matter as seen 
in the rolling ball. Neither the motion nor the ball 
are destroyed when they are separated. Nor is the 
physical or mental force engaged in eating de¬ 
stroyed when you have finished eating and think 
of other things. New forces are created from the 
old and they are created in the same amount. But 
neither mental nor physical forces are ever de¬ 
stroyed. 

This is more easy to grasp if we will but re¬ 
member that living cells have their entire connec¬ 
tion and being in the relation of life ether; that as 

soon as the coexistence is destroyed the physical 

40 


YOUR LIFE ETHER 


matter which forms our body and our brain be¬ 
come subject to physical forces without our con¬ 
trol and soon pass away as the chemical changes 
occur. 

The body places a limitation upon the mind, only 
because mind seeks reality; and, seeking reality, 
must turn to the objects presented to the senses. 
Thus does consciousness learn of things outside 
itself, learning slowly and with effort. Thus does 
consciousness leap to achievement and to action, 
while a cumbersome body half-heartedly and 
heavily turns in the direction which mind would 
have it go. Thus is imagination rapid, painting the 
acts and situations of weeks in a few moments; but 
only at the cost of reality, for in imagination mind 
removes itself from the clumsy brain which ever 
halts it, and to which it must ever turn while it is 
bound within this human form. 

The brain is the means of confirmation by which 
the mind knows reality and sad, indeed, is he who 
cannot accept this confirmation and who cannot 
bring himself to believe his own senses. He must 
then doubt his own existence than which fear noth¬ 
ing is so annihilating of progress. 

Do you suppose that wine or drugs really affect 

41 


REACTIONISM 


your mind? That these chemicals actually change 
your consciousness? No. They affect the physical 
brain and distort the objects of your consciousness, 
and since the brain is the source of real affectations 
your mental pictures will to that degree be dis¬ 
torted. And where, by a disease of the brain, a 
man becomes a lunatic, do you suppose that his 
mind or his life ether is disarranged? No, his 
brain may be devastated by disease, but the rela¬ 
tions of his mental ether are unchanged—and death 
will free him from his earthly imperfection. 

The brain may distort the facts that it faces if 
it is not normal. In fact, it distorts all facts, by 
giving us perceptions that are only a part of the 
possible perceptions of mind, as there are sounds 
more delicate than our brains can transmit. But 
still it is to our brains and body, and their perfec¬ 
tion, that we must look for perfect objects as far 
as it is in our power to perceive. The formed re¬ 
actions of our brains to physical forces, without 
conscious direction, is a matter of vital import in 
our health and habits. 

Finding the relations of our life ether forms the 
search of consciousness for Truth. All knowledge, 

like all nature, resolves itself into a complete sys- 

42 


YOUR LIFE ETHER 


tem. As humans we have part knowledge only, 
which gives us part power, incomplete memory, 
imperfect understanding. When we find Truth 
we recognize it. It fits in with all our experience 
and knowledge. But when a new fact contravenes 
a truth we already have, we know it for error and 
search for its true relation as a fact. Nor are we 
ever at a loss to find corresponding ideas to which 
it is affiliated. 

Error does not really exist. Error is improperly 
related truth. - The evil in human minds disappears 
with no greater force than that of understanding. 
That two and two are five is improper relation. 
The beautiful truth of love can be distorted into 
evil by relating it to facts which are not a true rela¬ 
tion. The inspiration of hope can be destroyed 
when hope is related to improper desires. The 
relations of life ether are perfect. It is only in 
limited knowledge of these relations that man is 
impure or erroneous as an individual. 

If we were to know all the relations of life ether, 
as some day we may, we will have complete under¬ 
standing of all things. We shall be perfect in 
memory, because all associations of ideas will be 

complete. We shall know degrees of fineness in 

43 


REACTIONISM 


perception that earthly minds can never encom¬ 
pass. 

Today we have some inkling into the laws of 
attraction and motion, but then we shall know the 
laws of love and life and hope and charity—for 
with every fact of knowledge comes greater mental 
powers of knowledge. We can not see opportunity 
before we have seized other opportunities, for until 
then we do not know what guise opportunity may 
take. The schoolboy reads his proverbs with doubt 
and ridicule but he grows and learns and finally 
makes them his central precepts, for now he knows 
they are true and he sees their hidden wisdom. 

So with the business man: he scorns the efforts 
of his competitor for he knows by experience the 
things that give his product quality, and he further 
knows that his imitator can never catch up. So 
with the creator of any new thing: he is a better 
teacher of his creation than any follower, for the 
results of his reasoning are seen, but the long and 
tedious effort is never achieved by his follower, 
for the need is not there. 

Deep in the heart of every man and woman is 
a consciousness of a power so great and so vaulting 

that they know if they would but exercise it they 

44 



YOUR LIFE ETHER 


would tread new paths of power and accomplish¬ 
ment. 

The things which hamper this strength of pur¬ 
pose are fears of many kinds, the influences of 
environment, the deprecating views of others, the 
great force of mediocrity—perceptions which, 
though known to be erroneous and limited, never¬ 
theless are allowed more or less complete reaction. 

The greatest' deterrent influence is perhaps the 
fear that others might scoff or belittle the expres¬ 
sion of strong purpose, an influence which is trivial 
when we consider that this consciousness of force is 
human and that its expression will find in others re¬ 
sponses of respect and hearty acclaim. It is a force 
which will compel admiration, for it is a relentless 
and unchanging force in human nature, which 
others must recognize as quickly as ourselves. 

You as an individual with unique experiences 
and an unique personality have within you the 
power of doing things unlike others. If the power 
is one of service you will be sought if you but exer¬ 
cise it. Your individual ability is needed by the 
whole, for your powers are a part of the universal 
knowledge. You may fail to see it; you may scoff 

or belittle yourself but you cannot hide it forever, 

45 



REACTIONISM 


and it only awaits the spark of recognition to set it 
off and give you greater happiness in labor than 
you have ever known. 

There is no thing in nature that is not subject to 
laws, and there is no thing in mind or life that is not 
subject to laws. Love, faith, hate, all have laws 
of their own which cannot be contravened. All 
find relations in the great system of life ether and 
only when consciousness obstinately views the 
limited field of the brain does inertia, hopelessness 
and despondency occur. 

Thus by an apparently inexplicable insight does 
the man of limited education seem to tower in his 
wisdom above the academician; thus do people 
trust their “feelings” which they would have diffi¬ 
culty in putting into words; indeed, any form of 
expression seems to rob their feelings of their pene¬ 
tration. Thus do we receive religious revelation; 
seen in the laborer as quickly as in the cleric. 

This mind ether, this soul substance, is all know¬ 
ing. Can you remember a thing for which you did 
not have the ability to understand? Is the sub¬ 
stance of your thought ever found wanting in its 
ability to record facts and faces, sights and sounds? 
That which is true: do you not always recognize 

46 


YOUR LIFE ETHER 


it? To you is given gradual revelation of your self, 
which is all knowing and all perfect. Within 
yourself is the matter of all understanding and of 
perfect consciousness. That we have not com¬ 
pletely discovered ourselves is the answer to human 
ignorance. That we relate knowledge improperly 
is the answer to human sin and error. That we are 
imperfect in understanding is the answer to human 
hate, fear and sorrow. That perfect understand¬ 
ing knows no fear, hate or sorrow is an observation 
that shows us the ignorance of fear, the error of 
hate, the needlessness of sorrow. 

The inspiration that comes with our mental cre¬ 
ations, the sense of discovery that transports us to 
realms of intuition far beyond the efforts of our 
will, are flights of consciousness along the true 
paths of ether. Oh, that they could endure; that 
we could prolong them! But, no! We must con¬ 
firm their truth, their wisdom, their understand¬ 
ing with the real evidence of our sense and brain. 

We can never be certain of the creations of our 
own minds alone. We may exercise faith in 
erroneous as well as proper directions. The dis¬ 
coveries of our own brains can not be put forward 

as new convictions until we see the discoveries of 

47 


REACTIONISM 


others. We can not be sure of motion until the 
manifestations of motion are many times repeated. 
Nor can we be sure of the objects of our faith with¬ 
out confirmation of them in nature. 

If we lived in a world of our own, creatures of 
mind only, we would not know ourselves as real. 
It is when eyes give us the power to see others and 
ears to hear them, that we become aware both of 
our similarity as beings and our individuality as 
units in the existence of beings. It is when we 
converse and find our meaning is understood by 
others that we recognize that others are constituted 
like ourselves. It is when we realize that the form 
or relation of our life ether gives our power of con¬ 
sciousness its particular meaning and sequence and 
that a similar form or relation must exist in our 
friend’s self when we explain a situation to him, 
that we recognize that he is part of a total system 
of being of which we are also a part. 

It is when we realize the universality of the life 
ether system that we fully recognize our duty to 
other beings and theirs to us—that we see there 
is a brotherhood more deep and abiding than any 
we have heretofore understood. We see that a 

man’s understanding, not of physics, psychology, 

48 


YOUR LIFE ETHER 


business and navigation, but of sympathy, love, 
honor, virtue, compassion and service are his mea¬ 
sure as a man. He may indeed reach this under¬ 
standing through physics or psychology, or 
commerce, for truth is everywhere evident, and 
the purest forms of consciousness are the ultimate 
result. A man may reach wisdom through avoid¬ 
ing or meeting the results of ignorance. Sin or 
virtue will each teach the wisdom of virtue. Love 
and hate will give a man recognition of the beauty 
of love, one by the prize of joy, the other by the 
scourge of pain. 

Some may know the truth of everlasting life by 
a revelation within them; others by seeing this 
eternal principle in all nature; still others by de¬ 
duction in the nature of their mind. To others, 
whose minds are blinded by a limited vision, is 
given the reality of death with which at last to 
know the certainty of their eternal existence. 

For if a man realizes the necessity of a physical 
counteraction to his conscious thought, and also 
that the starting point of his consciousness is gov¬ 
erned by the relation of life ether, he must see 
that this relationship cannot but continue. For it 

is not within his conscious power to change it. And 

49 


REACTIONISM 


life, which controls it, is itself controlled by it. 
Life cannot destroy that by which it exists, nor can 
life be destroyed by that which controls it. In 
life is the everlasting force of animate existence. 
In ether is the everlasting substance by which life 
manifests itself in given directions and forms. 
Consciousness, which is life’s awareness of itself, 
is an evolving development within the individual. 
The material body merely coexists, now in the 
form which clings to us—then in the form which 
greater understanding shall show us. 

The entire principle of understanding and the 
answer to man’s every inquiry is awaiting his pres¬ 
ent powers of observation, imagination and reason. 
If with humility and care, faith and logic, hope and 
fact he will diligently search, the perfect under¬ 
standing shall be his. “Too far ahead of the times,” 
it is said of prophets in religion or politics or 
science, and in these words the unthinking even 
show their faint perception of a great truth. Hu¬ 
man understanding is held back by the very ignor¬ 
ance which it fears to overthrow because of its 
reality. But it is to these leaders, pioneers and 
martyrs that we must look for awakening of finer, 

bigger understanding—for even the most lacking 

50 


YOUR LIFE ETHER 


in prophecy must feel within themselves the germ 
of any great truth. 

This is the spark that is touched by the sincere 
minister and righteous speaker. This is the truth 
in the hearts of men that is touched by the prophet 
of any truth. In this feeling or intuition or reve¬ 
lation—call it what you will—is the life ether in all 
men which when activated in its true relation finds 
a response so free and spontaneous that it may 
vent itself in a mighty acclamation of assent. 

What we lack is understanding. The civilized 
world is laboring under delusions—suffering from 
parts of truth. War will exist always, is a common 
statement heard. But search the heart of any man 
who is not tortured with hate and malice and he 
knows that war would cease if all felt as he feels. 
“War will exist always” is the very starting point 
of war. It is to say hate will always exist and 
ignorance and lust and brutality. War is the 
humorist that makes a ghastly joke of our intel¬ 
ligence, our understanding and our love for our 
fellow man, which we know exists in every human 
heart. 

Religious sects which teach intolerance of other 

sects are laboring under ignorance. They are 

51 


REACTIONISM 


teaching part truths only. Their followers must 
soon or late discover their intolerance fallible and 
lose their faith in many of the teachings of their 
religion. Everything untrue collapses before truth. 
The divinity of kings, the power of charms, a God 
of vengeance are superstitions that have had their 
day. The fear of death, the belief in hate as an 
everlasting quality of humanity, are superstitions 
which must fall before understanding. That evil 
gives pain and good joy, that remorse follows 
anger and happiness follows the expression of love 
are laws that we need no textbooks to know. That 
these laws are inviolable and superior to ourselves, 
and that our consciousness of them implies a higher 
consciousness than ours are plain observations 
which we can contemplate not with fear but with 
a sense of abiding security. 


52 


CHAPTER VII 


YOUR FUTURE LIFE 

Consciousness is bom anew every second of our 
life. This stream of awareness lives ever in the 
present and is unconnected to the past or future 
except through the relations of life ether. 

But while consciousness is a thing of constant 
change it is directed by the relations of ether as 
they have so far been discovered at any instant. 

In other words, it is the relation of ether that 
gives continuity to mind, that is the source of the 
sense of individuality, that is the basis of your 
future existence. 

Neither ether nor its relations with itself can be 
affected by physical forces or conscious forces. It 
is the soul of man and is imperishable. Life has 
given it existence in certain forms, and these forms 
govern the way in which life must hereafter affect 
it. Consciousness discovers the sense of person¬ 
ality as it finds power to direct its forces. But con- 

53 


REACTIONISM 


sciousness finds itself limited in this direction by 
the relations of ether, the direction of which it can 
only intuit. The desire for reality acts as a final 
check on man, because it makes understanding a 
necessary adjunct to revelation. 

What happens after physical death is therefore 
not absolutely a closed book. 

By their nature we see in judgment, under¬ 
standing or other mental faculty a growth of clar¬ 
ity and scope. After a period of time these 
faculties are ready to receive broader and greater 
objects. Then comes what we call death, but 
which is only the removal of the grosser sense of 
sight for the finer sense, when the energy of light 
shall find physical channels of lower resistance than 
eyeballs and brain cells. With lower physical re¬ 
sistance all senses will be more acute, and the 
powers of mind will become more embracing in 
their view of objects and consciousness more clear. 
As imagination can multiply the evidences of our 
senses, so when the very evidence is increased, 
imagination will reach greater heights. As judg¬ 
ment is clear when confined to reality, so judgment 
will be clearer when greater and more fundamental 
realities are available. 


54 




YOUR FUTURE LIFE 


We lose these physical senses that we know on 
earth, and are for the time being conscious only of 
the events which preceded the final breaking of the 
coexistence of matter and life ether. But already 
the sense of reality has largely vanished, for we 
now have no physical body by which to confirm 
our thoughts. 

As the man who loses his hand, but is not yet ac¬ 
customed to his loss, will still attempt to use the 
missing member, and will feel surprise when no 
sense of contact occurs, so will we feel the same 
sense of surprise at our new estate—however, a 
pleasant surprise and one of gain rather than loss. 

Realization of this want, leads us to look about, 
or, if you prefer, to think about, for some means of 
demonstrating our new existence; and we find 
answering voices to our questions. We realize the 
reality of these voices because they give us answers 
not in our experience or minds. We learn that 
now our ether, unharassed by a physical body, is 
finding its relations with the universal ether; that 
consciousness is finding more delicate pulsations 
of force. 

With this perception of the fineness of things 

consciousness looks for hands and arms and senses. 

55 


REACTIONISM 


Gradually, with wonder and awed surprise, con¬ 
sciousness sees the form that was ours on earth, 
but strangely changed for now the texture is so 
airy and light, brilliant and fine, sensitive yet in¬ 
sensible. 

Then comes the realization that we are not af¬ 
fected by physical forces, that time and space have 
no restrictions upon us in the physical sense we 
now know. We can go where we will at an un¬ 
imaginable velocity. We can know things beyond 
mundane knowledge for we grasp a new sense of 
the certainty of laws and we know the future event 
as we now guess it. Not now are we limited to 
vibrations of light of but 600 to 1500 million mil¬ 
lion a second, but of trillions a second. Colors and 
beauties never seen by human eyes seize our rapt 
admiration. Sweeter sounds, and a tremendously 
wider apprehension of depths and heights of tones 
are ours, for now we do not know the limitation of 
physical ears. And so with all our senses we find 
broader concepts, whose very immensity shows the 
need of our brief apprenticeship upon earth. 

Mental contests unremoved in this life are not 
removed in a future life. The understanding, as 

any force of mind, is a matter of progress, of evo- 

56 


YOUR FUTURE LIFE 

lution, and no changes can be expected which are 
miraculous. 

Effort on this earth will pay its way not only on 
this earth but for all existence. That futurity 
holds out wider opportunity for understanding 
does not mean that individual strength to seize it 
will be enlarged, but only that progress may be 
faster. 

Inequality of the individual must continue in all 
states of imperfection—for inequality is the evi¬ 
dence of imperfection of varying degrees. Since 
perfection brings with it a far richer, nobler and 
more wonderful life, it is plain that every moment 
wasted in gaining perfection is a waste of happi¬ 
ness. 

Nor does perfection imply discontent in material 

things, in music, in art, in sport, play and social 

% 

life. Materialism has been given a bad taste by 
those who fail to see in nature the sublime evidence 
of divine laws. 

Our sense of reality is not a mockery. It is our 
only foundation for truth besides our mere sense 
of existence. In nature and not in mind do we 
primarily find those everlasting laws upon which 

we can base beliefs of security and find a faith in 

57 


REACTIONISM 


the everlasting nature of life itself. The world of 
reality is our playground. We were meant to play. 
It is an underlying instinct within us. A law of 
human nature as inseparable from it as the force 
of will. To us is left the choice and control of our 
play and the power of discretion in the degree we 
permit its freedom. 

By the same logic, commerce and industry, ma¬ 
terial comfort and even luxuries are certainly not 
contrary to a religious view, insofar as they do not 
contravene moral laws. We have been endowed 
with a degree of mastery over the animals and ob¬ 
jects of the earth. Are we to disregard this bless¬ 
ing and deny ourselves our birthright in flattery 
to the Deity? Or is not that equivalent to return¬ 
ing the gift to the donor. 

Can one see forces travelling at a speed of mil¬ 
lions upon millions of miles a second? Can one cal¬ 
culate the distances of planets in the trillion trillion 
of miles? Can one contemplate the limitless extent 
of the universe, and see that its every law is in 
harmony with its every other law? Can one see 
all these things and not fail to deplore the pettiness 
and fruitlessness of a philosophy of denial, or a 

religion of childish and narrow sentimentalism ? To 

58 


YOUR FUTURE LIFE 


the eyes of man is given on earth the whole prin¬ 
ciple of the universe. That his ignorance cannot 
cope with its greatness is the evidence of an intel¬ 
ligence so immeasurable that man’s circumscribed 
world is infinitesimal indeed. Is he then in his 
conceit to deny the vastness, the divinity of these 
great works, thereby creating the illusion that mind 
is all, and he in his mind is alone divine ? 

This mind of his which now remembers the action 
of his youth would be unable so to do were there 
not a nonmental disposition to preserve it. It has 
not existed in his consciousness throughout the 
years. It is a new creation of mind—a new per¬ 
ception of the moment, but a memory that could 
not be brought to mind were there not the natural 
relation of life ether to preserve it. Is he then to 
deny the actuality of matter? Or, admitting it, 
deny its coexistent nature with the energy, life and 
consciousness that motivates it? The error of the 
sentimentalists lies in too limited understanding of 
the scope of reality, in their lack of recognition of 
the inseparable trinity of mind, life and life ether. 

And meanings. No longer do we think in the 
gross ideas of the human world, but we can grasp 

and appreciate subtlety and fine distinctions, for 

59 



REACTIONISM 


now the medium of communication is not the 
labored and halting action of larynx and tongue, 
but of thought. Greater understanding between 
us is the direct result and we find new qualities in 
the characters of our companions to admire and 
respect. 

We still are far from perfect. There is no 
sudden illumination which overturns the law of 
development. There is no common revelation 
which creates an immediate equality and belies the 
necessity of mental growth on this sphere. We 
find those to whose intellects, or purity, or spiri¬ 
tuality we bow in deference, as we find those whose 
attainments in knowledge, culture and grace are 
beneath our own. But all learn with greater ra¬ 
pidity and the plainer view of the laws of life give 
stronger wills to obey and deeper sorrows to those 
who still will disobey. 

Nor do the lazy escape work, for work, the exer¬ 
cise of any force, is coexistent with life. No one 
ever dodges work, though he may call it by another 
name, for even inertia becomes arduous. There 
never was a hobby that would not be called work 
by others to whom it did not appeal. It is difficult 

to see what nature of work would be carried on by 

60 


YOUR FUTURE LIFE 


intelligences so superior to ours. Education would 
of course be one important human endeavor which 
would proceed with much greater rapidity, prob¬ 
ably by personal training of each member in an 
arranged system which would bring the lowliest 
understanding up to one of equality. Nor can we 
suppose that the man who loved to build or paint 
or regulate on earth is going to lose his personal 
disposition or will find the material lacking upon 
which to create those masterpieces which were in 
his fettered imagination on earth. How little we 
now know of forms of matter! May there not be a 
substance so fine that matter visible only to micro¬ 
scopes is still gross in comparison and may pass 
through a building of this purer matter without 
changing a particle of it? Not remarkable when 
we consider the fineness of luminiferous ether by 
which light is transmitted even through this clumsy 
body of ours. 

And will all mysteries be solved? Assuredly no. 
For while every new branch of understanding sim¬ 
plifies all past knowledge, so it opens up new 
questions and new vistas of knowledge more com¬ 
plex and amazing than ever. 

And will there be an universal love? Assuredly 

61 


REACTIONISM 


no. But while the selfish on earth will be selfish 
still, they will find a keener insight into the attitude 
of others and will more quickly sense the pain they 
themselves suffer by their failing. And while those 
who now are scorned and answer this scorn with 
thoughts of rebellious hatred—there will they find 
pity, which they cannot hate but must turn into 
scorn of self with its rapid correction. How much 
more effective is pity than detestation! How pain¬ 
ful is the gentle chiding when the whip has no sting! 
For the former may be just, and strong and 
merciful while the latter errs as it corrects. 

Communication with humans? Possibly, if hu¬ 
mans could dissociate themselves from their grosser 
understanding, but not in any way completely sat¬ 
isfactory to humans in general; for humans must 
turn to body for confirmation and there will be 
none to see. The airy faith, the elusive hope are 
here more real a manifestation than the touch or 
spoken word. Certainly there is no possibility of 
table rappings and blowing horns which so many 
credulous imaginations will state they have heard. 

Religion? A greater one than any of ours, the 
number of which reveals their weakness. But a 
religion without fear or intolerance. Still several 

62 


YOUR FUTURE LIFE 


perhaps, but of less distinct lines of divergence. 
Common acceptance by the followers of one of the 
plausibility of the views of another. But all will 
be more religious, more humble as the immensity 
of the universe and the laws that govern it become 
known. And all will be happier, so greatly hap¬ 
pier, for now there is security and with security, 
peace. Now there will be forgiveness, and with 
forgiveness, love. Now there will be knowledge, 
and with knowledge, a meeting place of under¬ 
standing and generous agreement. 

And family relationships? Yes, where love con¬ 
tinues will there be continued relationships. For 
love never avoids and we will be individuals still. 
Companionship will be chosen on the basis of re¬ 
spect and reverence and never on the attraction of 
passion. Calmness and a great serenity shall dwell 
within us when we have lived awhile with those 
kindly, wise and humble beings. Surely, if they 
are conscious of our consciousnesses they must oft- 
times smile and sigh—a sigh which would be a cry 
of deep compassion did they not know that our 
apprenticeship would some day end. Then we, 
too, will smile at the pitiful earnestness with which 

we try to climb the greasy poles of life, when 

63 


REACTIONISM 

notched ones await us if we will but stay awhile 
and seek them. 

Many conclusions are not here stated, but this 
much is certain: That consciousness is a force; that 
it activates some world of matter or ether, call it 
what you will; that life is the only energy which 
can create the relationship of this ether—not con¬ 
sciousness; that life itself is governed by the rela¬ 
tionship it has created; that life, the force, cannot 
cease to exist unless ether ceases to exist; that ether 
cannot cease to exist unless life ceases to exist; that 
they are therefore of eternal existence, since neither 
has the power to end its being; that conscious¬ 
ness further exists in a system of gradual change, 
never of complete change, is the final observation 
by which we may know as truth the eternal nature 
of individuality. 

Consciousness is life’s awareness of itself Com¬ 
plete, it is perfect. Incomplete, it is imperfect. Its 
perfection is in knowledge and understanding, for 
these are the creators of every fine impulse. 

Your future life is in the making now. You 
now are governing its richness and its beauty, its 
joy and happiness. 


64 


CHAPTER VIII 


YOUR MENTAL FORCES 

Fine as are all fine thoughts we cannot escape 
the necessities of life, of work and money earning 
and social contacts and all the things which we ex¬ 
perience on earth. And so we will come back to a 
more detailed study of these forces of our minds, 
finding ways in which we can better direct them in 
their service to us as wholesome, working, loving, 
practical human beings. 

You will pardon me I am sure if I continue to 
compare your actions to those physical manifesta¬ 
tions in nature. Please believe that it is only for 
the purposes of clarification. 

You are already aware that chemical force may 
be changed into electricity and electricity into mag¬ 
netism, while your automobile proves that the force 
of combustion may be changed to the force of mo¬ 
tion. That the force of motion creates the force 

of friction is eloquently demonstrated by the new 

65 


REACTIONISM 


tires you consequently require. In other words, 
physical forces change in form. 

As we have briefly seen, the forces of your con¬ 
sciousness may also change their form. Your idea 
of this book has the force of reality. You see the 
printed page, the words, and you grasp meanings. 
The light vibrations, through your eyes, thence to 
the back of your head, are perceived by your con¬ 
sciousness and we have the force of belief in its 
existence. 

But the force of reality can be changed, say, into 
the force of imagination. As you read, something 
may start a new chain of thought, these words may 
blur and while your eyes are directed to the page 
you may be seeing places and people miles away. 
The force of reality is now the force of imagination. 

The force of attention, if the object of our atten¬ 
tion is difficult, may require the force of will, but 
the thing attended to may change the energy of the 
will into the force of interest. 

And so the force of consciousness takes many 
forms, frpm vague awareness when its objects are 
numerous and unimportant to intense attention 
when the objects are of a more limited character. 

Physicists have shown that a given amount of 

66 


YOUR MENTAL FORCES 


heat produces a given amount of motion or other 
force and that the original force can be produced 
from the consequent force or forces. 

Similarly, Reactionism observes that mental 
forces are interchangeable and that a given amount 
of reason will produce a given amount of under¬ 
standing or other force and that the result of a 
mental force can be returned to the original force. 

And as the physicist is limited in his experiments 
by the matter at his disposal, being able only to 
change forces by directing them to new forms of 
matter, so Reactionism observes that conscious 
forces must follow the relations of ether that have 
been so far discovered, and that in this way human 
action is limited by previous action. 

If you will understand that in nature a force is 
manifest by the reaction of matter, that motion is 
manifest by the reaction of the ball, heat by the 
reaction of boiling water, gravity by reaction of 
the falling stone or stream you will have a clear 
conception of what is meant by a reaction. If you 
will also understand that the force and the reaction 
are simultaneous and that they are two manifesta¬ 
tions of the same thing you will understand further 

the meaning of Reactionism. 

67 


REACTIONISM 


There is no action in nature or in mind that is 
not also a reaction to other forces. Heat affects 
water and breaks up its chemical affinity, turning it 
into steam. Now being more dispersed than air, 
the steam rises, as the force of gravity is exerted 
upon the surrounding air. Now the steam con¬ 
denses, by the removal of heat, and gravity once 
more is exerted upon it; and so the everlasting 
cycle of natural forces goes on, leaving matter, 
however, in ever new combinations and relations. 
The quantity of matter is unchanged, but its re¬ 
lationships are new. 

Mental laws are very much the same. One force 
turns into another as work is done, and this new 
force may again change into another. The quan¬ 
tity of consciousness does not change, for if it did 
you could have excesses or deficiencies of conscious¬ 
ness, and we would see examples of human life 
without consciousness. We must suppose that our 
human consciousness is the same in quantity as 
another and certainly it is of the same nature as a 
force. It is the kind of ideas of which we are 
conscious that governs our comparative abilities. 

But our mental forces operate in the same ever¬ 
lasting cycle as natural forces. They never cease 

68 


YOUR MENTAL FORCES 


to exist either in sleep or under the influence of 
drugs. Physical forces, though subject to the rela¬ 
tions they find already existing in matter, do actu¬ 
ally change this relation; and mind, though subject 
to the relations which have been discovered by it, 
can nevertheless only discover new relations, so 
that instead of changing any ideas previously held 
consciousness but adds to them. 

Nothing is forgotten in one sense, for every ex¬ 
perience and thought adds its mite in making the 
larger or more embracing memory of a later day. 

Many are the mental forces. Attention, Will, 
Imagination, Inspiration, the Emotions, Reason, 
Belief, Understanding, are among a few of these 
powers of yours which Reactionism shows are con¬ 
vertible one into another. 

Your consciousness is the common fount of all 
mental energies. Consciousness is your power of 
awareness. Certain kinds of consciousness have 
stronger force and are more frequently in mind, 
but you have no mental force which is not a con¬ 
scious force. As we shall see, there is no need of a 
subconscious force to explain your non-conscious 
actions—and Reactionism will not victimize you by 

stating that there is a force within you not in your 

69 


i 


REACTIONISM 


control but which is more or less powerful than 
your conscious forces, as some psychologists main¬ 
tain. Nor will Reactionism give you the excuse 
of a subconscious power to explain those actions 
of yours which are not so commendable. 

Any one of your mental powers may be created 
in part by any other of them. Thus the force of 
belief, may be created by a sensation from without 
or this external percept may follow the combina¬ 
tion of expectation and imagination (as in sug¬ 
gestion) ; may follow will, attention and imagina¬ 
tion (as in hypnosis) ; may follow emotion and 
expectation (as in fear directed to non-existent 
danger) ; may follow understanding and reason 
(as belief in abstract ideas). 

All of these powers are therefore essentially the 
same thing—conscious power—and the difference 
in them is the difference in the ideas which dis¬ 
tinguish them, just as many physicists today lean 
to the belief that all material forces are merely the 
varied manifestations of the same force upon dif¬ 
fering kinds of matter. 

If we examine one of these forces, for instance, 
Reason, we find that it is made up of a central idea 

of a purpose, such as the solution of a problem, and 

70 



YOUR MENTAL FORCES 


a succession of ideas which are successively ac¬ 
cepted or rejected as they assist or fail to assist 
the central purpose. If each successive idea fails 
to assist in promoting the central purpose, Reason 
gradually loses its force until when the last idea 
produced from memory or imagination fails to help 
solution, the force of Reason is exhausted. 

From which we see that mental forces, while they 
perform work, exhaust themselves in the process. 

But as each idea brought to consciousness by the 
force of memory or imagination was inspected by 
reason, whether it was accepted or rejected, it 
nevertheless assumed the new force of understand¬ 
ing in its relation to the purpose of reason. In 
other words, as the force of reason was exhausted 
new forces of understanding were created. 

Therefore when one mental force performs work 
it is transformed into another kind of mental force. 

If we assume that every idea presented to reason 
formed a logical sequence of acceptable or assisting 
thoughts which permitted reason to fulfill its pur¬ 
pose or solve the problem, it still would change the 
force of each imaginative or memory idea to one 
of understanding. 

In other words the amount of new force created 

71 


REACTIONISM 


in each case would be the same. The degree of 
understanding given to each idea would be the 
same, in one case an understanding of inharmony, 
in the other one of harmony. 

The conclusion resulting from either process is 
one, not of reason (for that is now exhausted) but 
of understanding; in the one case understanding 
of ignorance, in the other, of achievement or deci¬ 
sion. 

If we suppose that all the ideas examined were 
of equal values and that the quantity of reason in¬ 
volved was, say, ten degrees, then the rate of ex¬ 
haustion of reason must have been one degree in its 
successive contemplation of each idea—and since 
the force of understanding was evolved from that 
of reason then it must be evolved in the same ratio. 
In the form used by the natural scientist we may 
then state it as a law that the total quantity of 
mental forces remains unchanged. 

No matter how consciousness may change its 
form it cannot change its quantity. 

This is supported by experience as well as rea¬ 
soning. We know in our states of abstraction or 
inertia a vague awareness of a thousand ideas at 

once. As we gaze on a beautiful landscape we see 

72 


YOUR MENTAL FORCES 


colors, vegetation, hills, flowers, cattle and a hun¬ 
dred other things with one sweeping glance. 

But now a particular thing attracts the force of 
interest; we attend and find it clear and strong in 
our minds, while the dim pictures of a moment ago 
become fainter still. 

Awareness is consciousness in many forms—giv¬ 
ing vague pictures. Attention is consciousness in 
concentrated form—giving clear pictures of certain 
details and forcing others even from the field of 
awareness. 

The force of awareness becomes to more or less 
greater degree the force of attention, and if we sup¬ 
pose the quantity of awareness to have been 100 
and the following quantity of attention 60; then 
we may state that the remaining force of awareness 
is 40. 

If now the force of consciousness does not 
change its quantity, we never lose consciousness, 
and the process of sleep or the action of drugs may 
be explained as a process of dispersal of conscious¬ 
ness to a degree that makes each separate content 
too vague for appreciation, or too unrelated with 
consciousness of self to create the sense of reality. 

To summarize your mental forces we recognize 

73 


REACTIONISM 


these qualities: They ar© interchangeable. They 
are created as others are expended and in the same 
amount. That as one force is in operation others 
must be created, is the final conclusion upon which 
Reactionism lays its greatest stress. For the kind 
of forces in mind and the kind of force to be cre¬ 
ated by the expenditure of another is within the 
power of consciousness to control. It is a law that 
the operation of one force will find a reaction in the 
creation of a new force; but the kind of reaction 
which will occur is within your power to govern. 


74 


CHAPTER IX 


YOUR REACTIONS 

Human beings are very interesting creatures. 
So different and yet so very much alike. The 
geniuses of invention, of art and of leadership, 
with their power of imagination, and the humblest 
artisans, plodding their uninspiring paths, are still 
the same in so many ways. They walk and talk 
with similar motions or sounds. They both experi¬ 
ence similar emotions. But we admire the former 
and look on the latter as unimportant cogs in the 
wheel, if we look at all. 

Slight were the differences in their babyhood, 
but what a gulf divides them now. The gulf be¬ 
tween mental power and mental impotence. The 
chasm of knowledge, producing pity and amaze¬ 
ment on the part of one; and respect, even awe, or 
sometimes, jealousy, on the part of the other. 

Physically they may be equal. Mentally they 


REACTIONISM 


are sundered to so great a degree, that it is difficult 
to find a meeting point. 

Physically they remain the same. Their hear¬ 
ing is of the same kind. The same principle con¬ 
trols their sight. It is mentally that they differ. 
And that difference is the only important dis¬ 
similarity of men. Of you and your neighbor. It 
is the difference of you today and the you of ten 
years hence—and you control the degree of differ¬ 
ence. 

In every moment of your life you are subject to 
perceptions—to mental forces—and these forces 
never stand still but immediately turn into new 
forces. This ever progressive series of reactions 
is not in your power to stop, but it is in your 
power to direct. 

You cannot have a perception without a cor¬ 
responding reaction. 

You limit your perceptions to the real objects 
of your senses. You further limit your ultimate 
reactions to the physical actions of your body. And 
so as a being your every perception and reaction 
constitute a progressive process of turning impres¬ 
sions into actions, which very actions create new 
impressions. 


76 



YOUR REACTIONS 


You may search laboriously without finding the 
ultimate purpose of your life, but is not the 
immediate purpose purely the one you see—your 
physical actions? 

If the rolling ball could think what answer could 
it make but that its purpose was to move air or 
produce friction? And each particle of air could 
but think that its life work is the communicating 
of its energy to other particles of air. 

From the supreme act of death to the contrac¬ 
tion of the pupil of your eye as light is increased 
is it not physical action that is the measure of 
human activity? 

Do we not make proverbs showing the weakness 
of intentions which do not culminate in action? Do 
we not feel the weakness, the purposelessness of 
any thought which is not ultimately a basis for 
action? And this very perception of the senseless¬ 
ness of an idea is a force which excludes it. 

Are not all imaginations but an effort to assist 
our purposes—our contemplated actions? And is 
not every instinctive reaction, whether of hunger 
or love, desire to live or the hope of a hereafter, one 
which must find expression in human action? 

Reactionism states it as a law that every per- 

77 




REACTIONISM 


ception in mind seeks to express itself in physical 
action—that no matter how faint or how elusive 
the idea may be, it is a definite impulse to which 
we attempt to give muscular response. 

Negative physical action, the will to resist, is it 
not the reaction to a stronger opposing perception, 
the good intention being overcome by the laz}^ per¬ 
ception whose physical muscular reaction is physi¬ 
cal inertia? 

Reactionism then conceives every perception as 
a force, the result of which is ultimately physical 
action—and states that the only thing which can 
prevent this physical action is a stronger opposing 
perception. 

If I ask you to gaze at the middle finger of your 
right hand, your perception of this idea must result 
in compliance unless the stronger perception of its 
absurdity creates a stronger negative reaction. 

Your interest in this subject shuts out the noises 
and lights surrounding you. They do not manifest 
themselves in your muscular action of listening or 
focussing your eyes. But my mere mention of 
these outer influences positively finds a greater 
muscular response than existed a moment ago. 

Do you think the cigarette smoking so prevalent 

78 


YOUR REACTIONS 


today is a result of the will of the people ? Do you 
suppose that feminine smoking is a result of femin¬ 
ine desire? Or do you suppose that advertising at 
every corner has created a new national habit? 
Advertising is a relentless power—to which we re¬ 
act as certainly as our opinions and our purposes 
are governed by our papers and magazines, the 
words of trusted friends, the books of accepted 
authorities. 

However slight, however vague, however at¬ 
tended to, every slightest perception of your mind 
is a contributing influence to your physical action. 
Only as human perceptions are different are human 
actions different. Only as instinct is universal, is 
human action universal. But you and I and all 
others are controlled by this central law of Re¬ 
actionism : That human perceptions seek to express 
themselves in human action . 

Thus Reactionism observes that change in our 
character is within our power only as we can change 
our perceptions. 

Every reaction is governed by the discovered 
relations of life ether, which, at any given instant, 
are unchangeable. But just as you can close your 
hand to shape your perception of a fist, so this 


REACTIONISM 


principle limits your entire power to govern your 
nature. 

Your imagined sensation is weaker than your 
actual sensation—you do not believe it! Your 
imagined action is weaker than your actual action 
—you do not believe it! Only action can actually 
change your nature to act, in spite of all the new 
thoughts, the Coue’s and the other easy-road-to- 
power cults. 

Hypnotize a man and tell him that this hand¬ 
kerchief is a cat, and he will actually believe it is a 
cat. He will stroke it and hear its purring. Ask 
him if it is not his imagination and he will answer 
and say, “No, I know it is a cat. I can see 
it.” But his eyes may be closed and if they are 
open they will be glassy and sightless! You have 
not affected the nerves of his eyes. 

Similarly, inspire a faith in a man that exalts him 
with a belief that he is powerful, strong, a master 
of men and master of himself—and he will be¬ 
lieve it, telling you that he feels the courage 
and hope of success. But his muscles will be unaf¬ 
fected and he will recognize the lie of his attitude 
the moment he finds his insufficiency in the face 
of facts. 


80 



YOUR REACTIONS 


This faith in courage will form a disposition to 
recreate the same faith in courage—but only coura¬ 
geous actions will make a brave man. 

As far as it goes, such inspiration is valuable, but 
its limitations must first be recognized before com¬ 
plete changes of character are possible. What 
value to inspiration when at the crucial moment it 
defeats its purposes? What value to faiths if they 
destroy pain only at the expense of destroying in¬ 
telligent removal of the cause of the pain? 

Your measure as a thinking being is limited only 
to the beautiful or grotesque pictures of your 
imagination—but your measure as a man or woman 
is fairly, honestly judged only by your physical 
actions. Your measure of yourself one, five^ ten 
years hence is governed only by your actual actions 
between now and then. Know this and you know 
your whole capacity for self betterment. Know 
this and you may reach a perfection never to be 
gained by a philosophy of denial, neglect and faith 
in ignorance. 

Your very action in reading this implies past 
actions of ambition and study. That you have per¬ 
sisted thus far shows you to have persisted in 

matters of more or less abstract nature before. 

81 




REACTIONISM 


Your understanding of Reactionism is gained with 
slow effort unless you have already expended simi¬ 
lar efforts, easy to grasp as Reactionism would be 
to the mental philosopher. 

There is no sudden road to mental strength, to 
mental analysis and understanding. There is no 
formula which can take the place of experience, 
observation and work. Edisons and Lincolns are 
not phenomenons in nature. They are men who by 
patient toil and constant effort have reached under¬ 
standing of things or people. Events may lend 
themselves to more spectacular treatment, but Lin¬ 
coln’s greatness would have been comparatively as 
great with lesser problems; Edison’s powers as 
comparatively great in an age of fewer contem¬ 
porary discoveries which simplified his great tasks. 

At this instant your character is a thing of dis¬ 
positions in your life-ether. These dispositions can 
only be enlarged—as they are every instant—by 
your subsequent reactions. Realize this and you 
will find new perceptions to support your mental 
forces. 

Various perceptions have various degrees of 
energy, a degree which is governed by the percep¬ 
tions we have already experienced. Thus to you 


YOUR REACTIONS 


the din of the foundry is a bewildering perception, 
which well nigh prevents you from normal 
thought. But it does not engage the attention of 
the furnace man. The sound vibrations are the 
same for each, but you have not yet formed physi¬ 
cal reactions to give vent to the noise. Your 
reactions are conscious. 

As I write the noises of the street below me and 
the ticking of a typewriter in the next room are 
perceptions which may not come to me until they 
are needed to illustrate a point. Until then, the 
energy of my former perceptions, supported by the 
energy of my perception to attend, caused a nega¬ 
tive reaction to these distracting sounds. But as 
soon as I seek an illustration, these perceptions 
find new paths of reaction. 

Beyond these, I could list the thousands of other 
influences; the tones of color and variations of 
sound, the ticking of the clock upon my desk, all 
of which go to make up my surroundings and all 
of which are excluded from my thoughts in the 
degree that they meet resistance. They are forces, 
as everything within the purview of our senses are 
forces, to which we constantly react, affirmatively 

or negatively, in every instant of our life. All have 

83 


REACTIONISM 


energy, manifest in action. All have force. To 
us alone is left the power to react, consciously or 
without consciousness, and even th& way we react 
is absolutely controlled by the manner in which we 
have previously reacted! Our power of determina¬ 
tion lies only in our power to produce new per¬ 
ceptions with which to complete our understanding 
and so reinforce the clarity of our perception that 
the proper reaction will follow. 

A perception may be a single object, which con¬ 
sidered as an inanimate thing has no power, but if 
we perceive it, it has already become a force to 
which we have reacted by the focussing of our eyes. 
Our very perception gives it power to the energy 
of which we react. 

Further than this we see that did not our pre¬ 
ceding reactions, or lack of them, allow it to be¬ 
come the object of our attention, its existence 
would not have made itself felt. 

There is no difference in the principle, whether 
the object is a table—a physical thing—or a 
disposition of the mind to picture a table. The 
energy that resides in one or the other is manifest 
only if our reactions in progress allow its percep¬ 
tion. 


84 




YOUR REACTIONS 


Many of our actions in life are unconsciously 
performed. Breathing, contractions and expan¬ 
sions of the skin pores as the nerves perceive 
changes in temperature, the action of the heart, are 
physical reactions of which we are not often con¬ 
scious. There are many reactions of which we 
never have consciousness, such as the secretive and 
excretive action of cells, as in the muscles. These 
unconscious reactions, though they are regulated, 
are not conscious and there is no choice of the 
reaction. They are life reactions which we have 
not yet the power to discover. 

Our unconscious reactions are not subject to our 
control until they enter consciousness. For in¬ 
stance, without consciousness, the heart will expand 
or contract in the degree that physical and life 
forces influence its action. Smoking may acceler¬ 
ate it by the physical action of the drug, while we 
remain unconscious of the acceleration. However, 
if we hold the conscious perception that our heart 
action is accelerating, it may indeed beat faster. 
Even in this phenomenon, we may be unconscious 
of the physical action involved; that is, in the 
muscular action which our perception caused. 

We have seen that conscious force through the 

85 


REACTIONISM 


coexistence of life-ether and the physical matter of 
the body is coexistent with physical forces. When 
you control your thoughts, when you direct them 
by means of purpose, you also direct the course of 
physical forces, controlling your actions. But 
when you cease to consciously direct your physical 
forces, you do not reduce the amount of conscious¬ 
ness but you permit consciousness to follow the 
course of physical energy. 

This relinquishment of conscious direction is the 
process of sleep and of all rest, and in these states 
is necessary and wise; but it is also the mental 
process of laziness and inertia and to slighter de¬ 
grees of indecision, lack of deliberation and credul- 
ity. 

To obtain a true sense of the conditions of the 
body, such as fatigue, pain, or temperature it is 
necessary to permit conscious force to follow physi¬ 
cal force, which, since it follows the paths of least 
resistance when uncontrolled by consciousness, 
gives consciousness a true understanding of its 
natural direction and strength. It does not follow 
that, because consciousness may in this way become 
aware of the bodily condition, consciousness is 

actually controlled by physical forces, for it is an 

86 


YOUR REACTIONS 


act of the will momentarily to relinquish the privi¬ 
lege of direction. 

Those people to whom this relinquishment of 
control has become habitual are little more than 
automatons. Every sound and sight grasps their 
interest. They are credulous. They are easily 
swayed from their purposes. They are subject to 
emotions of self pity. They exaggerate the diffi¬ 
culty of their every task. Their reactions are 
physical rather than mental. They want delibera¬ 
tion in their movements. They lack poise and bear¬ 
ing. They shuffle along, prey to a million ideas 
which flit without purpose before their conscious¬ 
ness. Their memories fail them. Their wills 
falter. Their reasonings break before a conclusion 
is half reached. Their imaginations are uncon¬ 
trolled. They day dream. They are mental 
weaklings. 

The other extreme is the man who disregards 
health and bodily welfare in his effort to make 
every thinking moment count. Whose purposes 
are so strong that friendships, relationships and all 
facts which are not obviously related to his pur¬ 
poses are excluded. This man approaches the 

fanatic as the other extreme approaches the half 

87 


REACTIONISM 


wit. This man bends everything to his purposes, 
usually achieving it at the cost of health, friend¬ 
ships or breadth of knowledge. 

The latter type is distinctly in the minority and 
some of his characteristics could be partly culti¬ 
vated by most of us with profit. 

Between these extremes is the man who has 
formed systematic habits of rest, sustenance and 
exercise. He may then forget his body and its 
needs and devote his thinking time to a properly 
balanced cultivation of his mind—whether his 
knowledge or purpose. 


88 


CHAPTER X 


YOUR PURPOSES 

Your purposes in life form the main reactions 
in consciousness. These purposes have been gradu¬ 
ally formed by your past reactions to past percep¬ 
tions. You may trace back the influences in your 
life which have led to your present activities and 
intentions. 

Further these central purposes of yours, so 
closely allied to the many observations which go to 
make up your knowledge of yourself, largely gov¬ 
ern the way in which you react to every perception 
that comes to you. 

Strongly defined purposes are always the source 
of power of the man who achieves his desires, for 
the reason that there is decisive negation of all 
perceptions which do not assist in attainment. The 
very physical disposition of such men is to reject 

all distracting influences, and to allow free under- 

89 


REACTIONISM 


standing of those perceptions in harmony with the 
central purpose. 

These central reactions are in progress in every 
hour, in a more or less arranged system, from the 
moment you awake, when hunger may awaken the 
purpose to breakfast, to evening, when fatigue may 
awaken the purpose to sleep. 

Yes, sleep, too, is a perception, the reaction of 
which is to suppress differing perceptions, to relax, 
to limit the field of attention, to estop all reactions 
which surround the idea of self. 

We never lose consciousness, as we have already 
noted. There may be a fewer or greater number of 
reactions going on, but consciousness does not 
change in any way. Continuous reactions may go 
on while we sleep, but because they are prevented 
by our perception to sleep from awakening the 
idea of self, they are forgotten in the morning, 
not being perceived as a part of our real experi¬ 
ence. Thus, in dreams, our ideas of ourselves are 
unreal; we become intangible or powerful, we are 
creatures as limitless in power as our fancy. Were 
we to feel ourselves as truly real, we should be 
already awake. 

From time to time we waver in our purpose. 

90 


YOUR PURPOSES 


A new purpose presents itself, perhaps the idea of 
pleasure. These two purposes have become parts 
of a third purpose—one of judgment—and ex¬ 
pressed in the self question, “Which shall I do?” 
A deadlock ensues for the moment while on each 
side are created new perceptions, enlarging the 
central perception of the values of both courses. 
The moment, however, that the energy of one phase 
of the perception becomes greater than the other 
we experience the reaction in the form of a new 
perception—one of decision—and expressed in the 
words “I will do that.” 

We must remember that in these temporary in¬ 
decisions, with the countless perceptions they 
awaken on each side, the strengths of the conflict¬ 
ing energies are determined by the reaction resist¬ 
ance to them. Nothing can show us so clearly 
the importance of wise reactions or the future in¬ 
fluence of wrong reaction in however small a 
matter. 

When we realize the complexity of many of our 
reactions, and further realize that this very com¬ 
plexity is the gradual result of past responses, we 
also see that without proper reactions this com¬ 
plexity may easily become chaos. One sees that 

91 





REACTIONISM 


knowledge is indeed power and ignorance weak¬ 
ness. 

There are men who confess to a fear of insanity. 
But insanity is impossible where the reactions to 
each perception are sound. Unless subject to ac¬ 
cident or other physical injury, such fear is ground¬ 
less on the part of normal men. 

But the difference between insanity and ignor¬ 
ance is slight. Ignorance gives faulty or negative 
reaction to many percejDtions because of the ab¬ 
sence of prior reaction. Insanity gives faulty re¬ 
actions because of a faulty prior reaction, when it 
is not a result of physical disability of the brain. 
The joy, the compassion, the love and faith of 
understanding is denied them both. 

We have formed reactions for an instantaneous 
yes or no to the most complicated perceptions. 
That every contributing reaction that enters into 
their total strength be based on perfect perception 
is the only gauge of the soundness of the sum 
reaction. 

With this understanding we can see how the 
genius of invention or philosophy is not often a 
man with the faculty of money making or securing 

other material advantage. His purposes are so 

92 


YOUR PURPOSES 


broad, his conceptions so intense, that the reactive 
response to such opportunities is ill-formed. For 
him the hard chair, the sleepless nights, the de¬ 
mands of hunger are perceptions that are not felt 
as important. They enter consciousness only when 
they are acutely perceived. Conversely, we must 
see that in an era of material well-being, by the 
exaggerated emphasis on the importance of money, 
position and material things, that bigger values are 
of necessity lost to humanity. Great intellects are 
no less subject to perceptions and the laws of 
Reactionism. 

But also we must see that great organizers or 
financiers, students or statesmen have the common 
capacity for accurate reactions to complicated per¬ 
ceptions—that their difference lies not in mental 
strength but in the nature of the things perceived. 
That the one should choose finance and the other 
religion again is governed by nothing but their 
disposition to react to the perceptions of their 
earlier years. 

Heredity certainly influences the disposition to 
react along certain lines and fortunate is he who 
early discovers the nature of the perceptions for 

which he has clearer understanding. He then will 

93 


REACTIONISM 


combine both natural and acquired dispositions to 
a greater understanding and pleasure in his work- 

Consciousness is limitless, but the limitation of 
humanity is in the content of the human conscious¬ 
ness—of the things perceived by the mind and re¬ 
acted upon. Even invention must first presuppose 
a result, and then proceed to make the imagined 
thing a reality. And so with hope or imagination, 
knowledge or faith. 

Our central perceptions are those which govern 
our lives and it is to their strength, their wisdom, 
their greatness that we must look for our future 
strength, wisdom and greatness. Review them. 


94 



CHAPTER XI 


YOUR CHARACTER 

The way in which we are disposed to react 
forms what we know as character. It is your 
character to react in certain ways to a given per¬ 
ception. Your neighbor’s reaction may be wholly 
different. 

Since, as we have already seen, the disposition 
we possess to react is governed by the relation of 
life ether, character becomes a very stable and en¬ 
during thing. It is a quality in which we are 
justified in reposing faith. 

Of course, due to the intense energy of certain 
perceptions, character may seemingly be over¬ 
turned in an instant. Thus do surety companies 
lay stress on the applicant’s viewpoint toward 
gambling and similar habits—not because they 
have any moral attitude towards these vices, but 
because they know that the result of a considerable 

loss may overturn the individual’s character, pre- 

95 


REACTIONISM 


senting him with perceptions of want or fear or 
poverty that may in turn result in the reaction of 
theft. 

Character may thus be fairly judged and scien¬ 
tifically estimated in people of normal habits. If, 
however, the individual is subject to the influences 
of vice, his normal reactions to temptation may be 
easily overcome by new conscious perceptions. 

Redemption of character, similarly, becomes a 
difficult process, requiring time to displace the al¬ 
ready formed dispositions. A strong emotional 
appeal may do it in a moment, to be sure, but in the 
many instances the effects are short lived. 

In the normal course of life, good character be¬ 
comes more powerful with age and evil character 
equally more difficult to redeem. Every contest 
won increases the inherent strength to win; every 
contest lost increases the disposition to lose. 

Aside from character thought of in its moral 
aspects is the character of manner, of nature, and 
of service. The ill-tempered, the thoughtless, the 
unkind become more or less so each day. Similarly 
the kind, the generous, the cheerful and the wise 
improve their natures in this respect with the exer¬ 
cise of these attitudes. 


96 


YOUR CHARACTER 


And so throughout life our character is ever 
changing but at any instant of our life is governed 
by our actions up to that instant. 

Are you depressed? Then look for sunny per¬ 
ceptions—daily, hourly—and after a time you shall 
indeed know cheerfulness of disposition. It is not 
necessary to ignore the depressing thing—for that 
is unwisdom—but merely understand that your 
depression cannot help understanding of trouble 
and that calm, strong analysis of it will most wisely 
and with least suffering dictate the proper reac¬ 
tion. 

A cheerfulness built on ignorance is too much 
exploited today. Ignoring of perceptions neces¬ 
sarily limits understanding, while true understand¬ 
ing will recognize the realities of the pain as well 
as the joys of life, preventing only the unwhole¬ 
some exaggeration of them. Face life fearlessly. 
Analyze life impartially. Then will you have the 
strength of understanding. 

Understanding mitigates sorrow with the know¬ 
ledge of its necessity; modulates joy with 
appreciation; strengthens hope with reason. Un¬ 
derstanding has no place for hatred, selfishness, 

vindictiveness. Understanding cannot help but 

97 



REACTIONISM 


give compassion, respect and love. The weaknesses 
of others become strengths in understanding. 

Your consciousness is your power to understand. 
Make things clear to yourself and you will find 
their true relation. Make your consciousness a 
pure understanding. 

The reactions that form character may be again 
divided into group reactions for which we have 
given names, such as Will, Attention, Judgment, 
and so on. 

These groups, while often partly composed of 
the reactions of each other, may be considered as 
the more important elements of character and will 
now be analyzed. 


98 


CHAPTER XII 


YOUR ATTENTION 

Attention is the name given to the group of 
perceptions which lend clearer understanding. The 
reaction to attention perceptions is the necessary 
physical attunement on the one hand and in the in¬ 
hibition of interrupting perceptions on the other. 

Attention may find resistance of a great degree, 
requiring the effort of concentration, or it may be 
in progress without effort, as in attention arrested 
by outer influences. The word attention is best 
used when some effort is necessary, or in the terms 
of Reactionism, when the perception is confronted 
with opposing perceptions. 

Credulity is a result of weak attention reactions. 
The overcredulous person accepts perceptions 
without bringing their opposing perceptions into 
play. He is too ready of interest, too untrained 
in criticism. 


99 


REACTIONISM 


The excessively incredulous person, on the other 
hand, has trained his attention to an unreasoning 
negative reaction to every perception that comes to 
him. His refusal to accept your idea is not indica¬ 
tive of strength of mind, but of refusal to under¬ 
stand; a mental habit formed, possibly, by a fear 
of his own powers of judgment. This individual 
is quite as credulous as his opposite type, if you 
reverse the presentation of your idea, for in each 
case it is the inability to weigh, to attend, to see 
your idea clearly while summoning to attention 
opposing ideas of equal detail. 

The man who fears the insurance or book agent 
is already conscious of his inability to resist, has 
already accredited the agent with powers of per¬ 
sistence or skill superior to his own! 

Attention is not confined to perceptions from 
without. Our inner purposes, our trains of 
thought, our reasoning is clear and sound as we 
can attend. Should it be your purpose to solve a 
mental problem, it is your degree of attention, your 
power to inhibit extraneous ideas, that gives you 
clear insight. The more difficult the problem, 
which is only another way of saying the more fac¬ 
tors involved, the greater is the degree of attention 

100 


< 


YOUR ATTENTION 


you must bestow. The more complex are the per¬ 
ceptions in consciousness, the less vivid are their 
composing perceptions. With these weaker reac¬ 
tions, attention has to combat a greater number 
of opposing ideas. 

Thus those people who decry the teaching of 
algebra or geometry in school, because they do not 
use them in later life, little dream of their influence 
in every moment of their existence. And the indi¬ 
vidual who refuses to put forth the necessary effort 
to understand a complex problem little under¬ 
stands the mental helplessness to which he is ac¬ 
customing himself. 

There is no easy or quick way to mental ability. 
There is no “day by day, in every way” formula 
which can replace effort. Great thinkers are not 
born. Effortless thinking, as right thinking, is but 
the result of reactions, themselves made character¬ 
istic by previous effort. 


101 









CHAPTER XIII 


YOUR WILL 

lx the way which attention controls succeeding 
perceptions, so does will control actions. 

Your will is not a wonderful power which may 
at any second step in and do herculean mental 
tasks. It is not a separate faculty which controls 
your every act. It is as important as other group 
perceptions, but no more. Like attention, it is a 
name given to certain kinds of perceptions and 
their reactions, and is subject to the same laws that 
govern any other faculty. 

When we speak of will power we generally refer 
to some contemplated actions that are contrary to 
habit or experience, or involve duty, morals or 
courage. In lesser degree we speak of an effort 
of the will when there is a distasteful or embarrass¬ 
ing task to be accomplished. 

Strength of will, then, means the strength of the 
reactions to perceptions of duty or right. 

As may be observed, perceptions of the will may 

103 


REACTIONISM 


be combined with other perceptions. There is no 
distinct line that may be drawn. All perceptions 
are essentially alike. They are conscious forces. 
The exercise of will, like the exercise of any mental 
energy, destroys its own energy, creating new 
forces. That these may again be converted into 
forces of will is the fact to remember and the habit 
to cultivate. 

To make this clearer, suppose you confront a 
tedious task. You dislike it but it must be done. 
As you proceed, the effort of your will is strained, 
it seems, to the utmost. New perceptions of pleas¬ 
anter labors come to you and you are required to 
renew your will effort. Many, in your situation, 
would find excuses to quit. But if your past re¬ 
actions in similar situations have developed your 
will, you are now of sterner stuff and finally will 
accomplish the task. 

For the quitter there was knowledge of weak¬ 
ness, with the sense of shame and self-abasement 
that goes with it. For you, there is the knowledge 
of achievement, with the satisfaction and greater 
faith in your own powers. For both, there is the 
ineradicable tendency to react in the same way in 
the future. 


104 


YOUR WILL 


The exercise of will seems to require so much 
effort in the mind of the youth, for he has not yet 
learned that concentration on and determination to 
complete the difficult task are forces which bolster 
the will and rob its use of the sense of effort. The 
youth bemoans the difficulty, dispersing the forces 
that would make the task simple were he to throw 
himself into his necessary labors with a cheerful 
willingness. 

Power of will is a development. Every slight¬ 
est act adds its influence to one side or another. 
As you set yourself tasks that are difficult so 
will you strengthen your will. As you dodge 
the effort of will so you destroy your mental 
strength. 

The many are motivated by thoughts of self in¬ 
dulgence and pleasures of superficial nature. The 
few rise above the tawdry attractions of our pres¬ 
ent civilization and fit themselves for greater tasks, 
nobler ends, more constructive efforts. These are 
the leaders, the masters of men, who govern by 
pure mental ability and strength and to whose 
knowledge, fearlessness and strength of will the 
many pay obeisance. 

It is not the brilliant mind nor even the mind 

105 


1 


REACTIONISM 

developed in the softness of extreme culture that 
leads, but the mind that is in control of its owner. 
The mind that has clear purpose, trained attention, 
resistless will. 


106 


CHAPTER XIV 

YOUR INSTINCT 

There are a number of perceptions which arise 
primarily from our physical organization, to which 
group we give the name instinct. Hunger and 
fatigue are among the more simple, the reactions 
to which are eating and sleeping. More complex 
is the desire to live and to reproduce, which are per¬ 
ceptions finding their origin within the organism 
and composed of many embracing perceptions of 
a complex nature. 

We feel instinctive perceptions as more power¬ 
ful, because the reactions to them are to a larger 
degree physical, requiring strong conscious effort 
for their diversion into new reactionary outlets. 

Thus the instinct to preserve life is very strong, 
yet we may perform acts of heroism or self-de¬ 
struction under the stress of strong perceptions. 

It is important that instinctive perceptions find 

107 


REACTIONISM 


their natural reaction. They are so deeply im¬ 
planted that unnatural reactions may be harmful. 

By a natural reaction is not necessarily meant 
the exact physical reaction which nature has pre¬ 
pared, though it is doubtful if the degree of 
proper balance is not even then affected. For ex¬ 
ample, a woman of strong maternal instincts may 
find a natural expression in teaching or caring for 
the sick, or in other ways finding reactions that 
utilize the physical outlets to a large extent. 

Instinctive perceptions are nearly always com¬ 
posed of many elements, with physical reactions 
for each. The larger expression along the normal 
physical outlet to each element, reduces the number 
of elements that require conscious disposition. 

Even instinct, however, is subject to control. 
Hunger strikers have testified to the absence of 
hunger after a time, while it is our everyday ex¬ 
perience that perceptions of an instinctive nature 
may be subjugated for a time by opposing con¬ 
cepts. With repeated subjugation the perception 
will not make itself felt at all. 

To what extent diversion of our instincts is wise, 
is a matter of personal judgment. We can only 

observe, since our conscious processes can divert 

108 


YOUR INSTINCT 


instinctive energies in numerous ways, and since 
exercise of this power is usually accompanied by 
a sensation of strength, that analysis, understand¬ 
ing and control of instinct is the exercise of our 
higher powers. 

Thus the instinct to love may not only find com¬ 
plete expression in mating, but may find reaction¬ 
ary outlets in service to humanity or religion, while 
the instinct to preserve life may find expression in 
giving life for the saving of other lives. 

Instincts are perceptions to which we must react 
negatively or affirmatively—to which we must give 
natural expression or whose natural reactions must 
be inhibited by the absorption of their energy by 
other perceptions. 


109 











CHAPTER XV 


YOUR EMOTION 

Every perception has an emotional coloring— 
partakes to some degree of pleasure or pain. The 
term emotion cannot be confined to such complex 
perceptions as love or happiness. In some degree, 
it accompanies everything we conceive. 

Instinctive perceptions have a keener emotional 
character. Will perceptions have a different emo¬ 
tional feeling. Perceptions of judgment, of 
imagination as well as perceptions of vision and 
hearing all have their degrees of satisfaction or dis¬ 
tastefulness. 

The ideas which the enthusiast expresses to me 
arouse in him exalted emotions, while the same 
ideas may find me critical and unmoved. The 

general ideas were the same, but the emotional 

♦ 

coloring was decidedly different. 

What controls the emotional character of our 

111 


REACTIONISM 


perceptions? Why should we feel emotion as so 
great an influence in our thoughts? 

The freedom with which the energy of our per¬ 
ceptions is translated into reactions, seems to gov¬ 
ern the emotional strength. As reactions satisfy 
the demands of our perceptions do we feel gratifi¬ 
cation. As they fail to satisfy our perceptions do 
we feel pain. The completeness or incompleteness 
of the reaction governs the strength of the percep¬ 
tion and its emotional character. Thus while love 
is still an abstract idea, its emotional coloring is 
slight, but when the object of affection appears the 
reactions of admiration and desire give to love an 
emotional strength of tremendous force. The 
perception of faith to the atheist is an academic 
principle, while to the believer it is an exalting and 
transcendent emotion. Emotion increases with 
expression and decreases with inhibition. 

Physical pain may be prevented by conscious 
perceptions of a stronger emotional degree, as is 
shown in the faith cures that crop up every few 
years. But as we saw in our study of instinct, it 
is a question of judgment whether our toothache 
should be ignored or the tooth pulled. Faith is 
beautiful, only if it is not foolish. 

m 


YOUR EMOTION 


The inspiration of the writer is but the emotional 
accompaniment of free-reacting ideas, whose very 
freedom may lend a clarity or beauty of language 
that will permit the reader to feel the same emo¬ 
tional force. 

The imagination of the inventor is accompanied 
with emotional strength as he sees the connection 
in fast moving ideas between his new theory and the 
object of his effort. 

Conversely, there is emotional coloring of an 
opposite nature when reactions are labored or per¬ 
ceptions vague. 

Inability to properly react lowers self-esteem. 
Foolish reactions create self anger or dismay. 
Labored reactions create the sense of effort, just 
as assistance in them by new perceptions will give 
the emotion of relief. Perceptions of danger may 
so disarrange reactions that the strong emotion of 
fear is felt. 

To do things, to achieve, gives satisfaction. The 
higher the achievement in your own estimation, 
the greater the emotional accompaniment of pleas¬ 
ure. The more impotent to react you find your¬ 
self, the greater the emotional strength of pain. 

Since the emotional strengths of ideas are ac- 

113 


REACTIONISM 


companiments of all perceptions and since we can 
direct our reactions to perceptions by reinforcing 
them with new perceptions, we can control our 
emotions. Similarly, we can increase the emotional 
strength of our ideas by giving them the support 
of other strongly emotional perceptions, as every 
writer, artist or inventor knows almost without 
analysis. 

Uncontrolled emotion is uncontrolled reaction, 
the results of which are seen in every sanitarium. 
Controlled emotions are controlled reactions, the 
result of which is seen in the masterpiece of art and 
in the masters of men. 


114 


CHAPTER XVI 


YOUR POWER OF SUGGESTION 

We have heard much in recent years of the 
principle of Suggestion, to the powers of which are 
ascribed many strange and wonderful phenomena. 

A suggestion, we are told, is a way of presenting 
unacceptable ideas which causes belief in them. 
The suggestion may be that our headache has dis- 
appeared, or it may be that our courage is strong, 
or it may be that we need the salesman’s product. 

A perception becomes a suggestion, in other 
words, when it has definite resistance to overcome; 
a resistance of fact, or belief or understanding. 

That which we readily accept after considera¬ 
tion is not suggestion, but that which we accept 
contrary to or without judgment is termed sug¬ 
gestion. 

Thus if you say it is raining and I look and see 

115 


REACTIONISM 


that it is, no suggestion is involved; but if there is 
no rain and I accept your statement then I am 
subject to suggestion. 

In this exaggerated illustration, we normally 
would not accept the suggestion, but less obvious 
suggestions are confronting us every day, while 
suggestions of many kinds motivate us to an im¬ 
portant degree throughout our lives. 

Religion, politics, our faiths in certain individ¬ 
uals, our superstitions, day-dreams are all sugges¬ 
tions, controlling our reactions and perceptions 
throughout life. The characters of the play whom 
we temporarily feel as real have implanted a sug¬ 
gestion in our minds. 

The reaction of suggestion is essentially that of 
faith. For example, we may have several facts 
in mind, facts based on very definite knowledge. 
If we now imagine a purpose which essays to build 
from these facts a new understanding, then we 
must necessarily believe in our ability to do so. We 
must have faith in the possibility of our purpose. 
Once we conceive it as possible we have a new per¬ 
ception which ejects all thoughts which oppose it. 

Suggestion makes use of the same reactionary 

process, only with this difference: The faiths which 

116 


YOUR POWER OF SUGGESTION 


we create take in the perceptions of our whole ex¬ 
perience, whereas the faiths produced by sugges¬ 
tion are successful only in the degree that they 
limit the perceptions of our experience. 

To exercise the power of suggestion successfully, 
therefore, is to present perceptions in such a way 
as to inhibit opposing perceptions. 

Thus does the novelist describe a setting before 
introducing the character, bringing our percep¬ 
tions away from our surroundings and gradually 
circumscribing our imagination until we can ac¬ 
cept as natural the appearance of the character. 
Thus does the speaker wait for silence, the sugges¬ 
tion of which act is to lift in our imagination the 
importance of what he is to say. Thus does the 
salesman show us graphs and pictures, statistics 
and results, limiting our minds to thoughts of his 
product rather than of our need of it. Thus does 
the mother tell fairy stories with a moral rather 
than make uncolored demands. Thus do we use 
such phrases as “You are too intelligent to deny, 
etc.,” “You are old enough to know, etc.,” “Your 
judgment will tell you, etc.,” and the many other 
ways we have learned to obtain acceptance where 

we might expect resistance. 

117 


REACTIONISM 


These everyday uses of suggestion are ex¬ 
tremely valuable. In the classroom, the home, and 
in business, suggestion can often gain its end with 
far greater harmony and certainly greater success. 

Besides this normal use, is the growing impor¬ 
tance of suggestion to health. Suggestion may 
overcome the hysterias and neurasthenias, the 
hallucinations and illusions to which the mind may 
become victim. It may show improvement or cure 
of certain apparently physical ailments, when their 
true origin is the result of false ideas. But just 
as the mind is incapable of setting a bone straight, 
so mind is incapable of resisting diseases of the 
blood or of other diseases of physical cause. Mind 
of itself cannot affect matter, cannot will a table 
to upright itself, and those who teach beliefs so 
contrary to experience are teaching a faith which 
denies the very evidence of our senses, from whence 
comes the very power to state such a misbelief! 

Suggestion perhaps offers its widest field of use¬ 
fulness in the upbuilding of character—a field 
which has been too little studied. The more spec¬ 
tacular attainments of suggestion in mental disease 
have overshadowed the wider sphere of usefulness 

in less obvious but equally important matters of 

118 



YOUR POWER OF SUGGESTION 


inattention, depression, moral weakness and lack 
of determination. There is no reason why sug¬ 
gestion should not deal with the individual as the 
preacher and teacher instruct the many. 

Autosuggestion is strictly quite ineffective in 
normal people. It is a confusion of terms to call 
imaginative ideas and perceptions of belief auto¬ 
suggestion. The normal, well balanced mind does 
not deny its perceptions to itself. The lunatic 
perhaps can bring about successful autosugges¬ 
tion. He may perceive himself as a king, and with 
this perception of himself he may also see his 
guards as his subjects, his cell as his throne room 
and his visitors as courtiers. The normal mind, 
however, cannot successfully deny the evidences of 
the senses—and it is an unwholesome influence to 
attempt to do so. The man of sound mind will 
bring perceptions to bear which tend to enlighten¬ 
ment upon harmful ideas—not denial of their 
existence. Open combat and not weak negation 
is the true sign of mental strength. 

Coue, the latest disciple of autosuggestion, is in 
reality using pure suggestion, with no self power 
in it. Repeat my formula, he says, and certain re¬ 
sults will ensue. Acceptance of his suggestion 

119 



REACTIONISM 


will, of course, obtain results in many cases. Call¬ 
ing his method autosuggestion helps the effective¬ 
ness of his suggestion. The recipient feels that he 
is finding new powers rather than subjecting him¬ 
self to the suggestion of Coue. His unfamiliarity 
with the term autosuggestion lays the foundation 
for his giving to this theory an exaggerated value. 

Herein we see one principle of giving sugges¬ 
tions. The technique must not be obvious. Sug¬ 
gestion works subtly. The process is to bring 
about a reactionary adjustment favorable to the 
suggestion which is to be made; to create a favor¬ 
able anticipation or expectancy so that when the 
suggestion is implanted it finds complete reaction¬ 
ary response, without being superseded by judg¬ 
ment. 

A second principle of implanting suggestions is 
by linking them with already formed reactionary 
processes. Slight movements may obtain another’s 
attention without his being aware of it. Demands 
made by motions may obtain a separate response 
while a conversation is in progress. 

Above these simple suggestions which we in¬ 
stinctively make are the direct verbal suggestions 

which can be made so powerful by associating them 

120 


YOUR POWER OF SUGGESTION 


with instinctive and highly emotional perceptions, 
where the physical outlets are already formed for 
complete physical reaction. So do we suggest to 
the child the connection between misbehaviour and 
shame, and its opposite of good behaviour and hap¬ 
piness. So do some people unwisely suggest ideas 
of fear, which are successful only by implanting 
other injurious perceptions. 





CHAPTER XVII 


YOUR MENTAL STRENGTHS 

There are certain limitations in the measure¬ 
ment of your mental strengths which it is well to 
know. When we deal with physical forces it is not 
difficult to arrange a system of calculation; but 
when we try to measure mental forces we can use 
no satisfactory or accurate method since your 
forces of consciousness are controlled in their re¬ 
actions by your personal experience. The distinc¬ 
tion is this: 

We cannot see heat or motion but we can see 
objects moved or changed by it. We measure heat 
or motion by measuring the movement or change 
of matter. When we deal with consciousness, how- 
ever, the situation is reversed. We cannot see life 
ether, but can only feel the force. 

How then shall we measure the forces of con¬ 
sciousness? We certainly cannot measure life 

ether, for by its nature consciousness is unaware of 

123 


REACTIONISM 


it as an object, since it is indivisible from conscious¬ 
ness. Measurement of one’s mind can only be 
made by measurement of the forces themselves as 
we feel their comparative strength. 

When conscious forces are expressed in physical 
action we may be able to measure the strength of 
mental forces to some degree, but even then the 
accuracy is questionable, for various mental forces 
may produce the same physical act, as heroism may 
follow fear of the charge of cowardice or the 
prompting of an ideal. 

Efforts have been made to measure the speed 
and emotional strengths of ideas by noting changes 
in respiration, blood changes, skin excitements, etc., 
but these, too, are untrustworthy to a large degree, 
for no two persons have experienced the same 
things and have consequently no comparable men¬ 
tal process. Such a method might be applicable to 
the unformed minds of children to test general dis¬ 
positions but no great accuracy can be gained. It 
is our nature to withhold large contents of our 
minds from others and to show our best side. We 
have not yet reached the degree of understanding 
of each other to remove the fear of ridicule, scorn 
or depreciation. 

124 


YOUR MENTAL STRENGTHS 


The method by which mental improvement must 
be sought therefore lies with the individual himself. 
His own feelings are the most accurate measure¬ 
ment that he can obtain of them. Give him under¬ 
standing of the laws of his mind and he has the 
entire principle of self correction. Give him un¬ 
derstanding of a perfect mind and he has an 
objective to reach. Give him understanding of the 
power and solace, the will and resignation, the 
beauty and compassion of the perfect mind and 
you strengthen his purpose with bonds of iron. 
Give him lastly a method of refreshment of under¬ 
standing of these things and he will have a constant 
source of inspiration to progress. 

This is the pleasant task that has been assumed 
in the method of Reactionalysis, which is your self 
application of Reactionism: To describe the forces 
of mind—you to judge of your strength or weak¬ 
ness. To describe the perfect mind—you to judge 
of your degrees of perfection. To describe the re¬ 
sults of the perfect mind—you to judge whether 
they are worth the effort. To daily refresh this 
knowledge—you to take the refreshment as you 
will. 

Whether it be the force of despair or sorrow, 

1 25 




REACTIONISM 


whether it be humiliation or discontent, Reaction- 
alysis will show you how to supplant them. 
Whether it be lack of inspiration or hope, or need 
of courage or will, Reactionalysis will show you 
the way to acquire them. 

More than this no agency can do, for you are 
master of your mind—you are your mind. In your 
hands alone lies strength, happiness, joy and peace 
—and they all await you. 

Since my task is over, and it remains for you to 
analyze yourself, I will say adieu, leaving to Re¬ 
actionalysis the duty of expressing your ideas to 
yourself. After so long a harangue, you will, I 
am sure, find relief in being able to talk to your¬ 
self for a change—Good luck to you. 


126 


PART II 

REACTION ALYSIS 

THE SELF APPLICATION OF 
REACTIONISM 


127 
















CHAPTER XVIII 

INTRODUCTION 

It is one of the singular things about Truth, that 
it is so quickly recognized; and many a rare effort 
to establish it meets only with a final “I always 
felt that.” Truth is so obvious when it is once un¬ 
derstood that it often loses much of its force and all 
that is left is to present it again and again in differ¬ 
ent guises, cloaking it in new garments which when 
parted reveal again its beauty and its inspiration. 

In view of this, all that Reactionalysis can give 
is a clearer perception of truth, and if this is disap¬ 
pointing to that type of person who hopes to obtain 
a quick and sudden lift on the road to mental 
strength he must be disillusioned. 

On the other hand, Truth is relentless, govern¬ 
ing and never governed, and in its permanence, 
solidity and everlasting changelessness can inspire 

to efforts that make the lift an intolerable weak- 

129 


REACTIONALYSIS 


ness. Truth is for those who would have power 
rather than succor, the inherent will rather than the 
easier way. Truth is for those of courage and un¬ 
derstanding not for those who shrink and falter. 
Truth is a power which makes the strong stronger, 
but which whips the weak with the knowledge of 
their weakness. 

But where are the weak? When has humanity 
ever failed to rise above nature. Where has neces¬ 
sity ever shown itself without humanity rising to 
the occasion. Stumbling, perhaps, and slowly mov¬ 
ing, but in man, in you, is the capacity for strength, 
the ability to vault the barriers to progress—and 
this is a truth so obvious that no cloak can hide it. 

Reactionalysis, which presumes to lay down a 
method for your mental improvement, is limited 
again to your own powers of application. No 
method of mental betterment can prove practicable 
that is not arranged for use in the daily tasks and 
pleasures. Reactionalysis can only point the way, 
instruct in the principles, inspire by its truths and 
understanding, leaving to your ability and will 
to obtain the benefits which it can in this way only 
bestow. 

From the faculty of Attention by which we con- 

130 


INTRODUCTION 


trol the outer and inner perceptions that come to 
us, thence to Judgment, by which we weigh the 
things in Attention, and thence to Will by which 
we support our judgments, there are contributing 
and intermediate forces which may be fully dealt 
with under fifty headings. Some of these will recur 
both as regards Attention or Will, some again may 
be linked with all three powers, but since this com¬ 
plex mind of yours is motivated by so many forces, 
it is impossible for any system which over¬ 
emphasizes one to help them all. 

With these facts in mind, it is logical that the 
best system will be of broad and complete scope, 
supported by an individual understanding of each 
faculty that is detailed and clear. With a division 
into fifty parts it seems a logical way in which to 
improve each force by taking one each day for 
special observation. Your most important reac¬ 
tions are the sum of your composing reactions, and, 
therefore, to review the elements of these broader 
reactions is sound in principle. If we lose sight of 
the contributing forces to any central perception 
we shall easily be led astray. It is the parts of a 
perception that are most important, for the reac¬ 
tion to the total perception is governed by the reac- 

131 


REACTIONALYSIS 


tionary strengths of its parts on one side or the 
other. 

There are subsidiary forces which may be in¬ 
cluded under the general term Attention and these 
are studied in a general sequence, in this way laying 
the foundation of accurate perceptions. Then 
follow the forces which contribute to the process of 
Judgment and Reason and, lastly, the energies 
which support Will. 

In fifty days a surprising benefit will be found 
in the clarity of ideas, the strength of purposes, 
the speed of concurrent perceptions and the finality 
of decisions. 


132 


CHAPTER XIX 


FIRST DAY—MY MIND 

My mind is me. Its perfection is my perfection. 
Its weakness my weakness. As it has balance, so 
have I balance. As it has understanding so have I 
understanding. 

My mind is my power of thinking, of planning. 
It is the creator of my purposes and the means of 
their achievement. As my mind is judicious, care¬ 
ful and thorough so will my purposes be wise. As 
my mind is bold, fearless and ambitious so will my 
purposes be brought to fruition. 

My mind is my ability to select from a myriad of 
realities, to choose the beautiful, the stimulating 
and the wise. It is my ability to act, with decision, 
with deliberation and without fear. My mind is 
the sum of my mental forces, my most wonderful 
power, my greatest gift. 

I see in my mind, the desire to achieve and to im- 

133 


RE ACTIONALY SIS 


prove. I daily find new powers, new knowledge, 
new mental strength. 

I see the possibility of faster progress and more 
accurate understanding. I see in knowledge of 
my mind, knowledge of my strengths and frailties. 
On this first day of examination of my mind I will 
note them as they are shown in my daily tasks. 


134 


CHAPTER XX 

SECOND DAY—MY MENTAL FORCES 

I recognize that my mental forces change one 
into another and that while they will still obey this 
law whether I seek to direct them or not, still I 
may direct them to my own profit and happiness. 

I observe that all my mental forces are balanced 
by forces of an opposite nature. That the force of 
love may be turned into that of hate; that the valu¬ 
able force of attention may be dispersed with forces 
of distraction; that my force of will may be turned 
into the force of irresolution. 

This day I will observe my mental forces as I 
have so far given them habitual reactions. I will 
decide which forces harm me and I will examine 
their nature and find the corrective force. 

I recognize that when I understand harmful in¬ 
fluences, it is a principle of mind to make this 

very understanding a corrective influence. I will 

135 


REACTIONALYSIS 


therefore judge myself honestly and accurately 
and acquire habits of wiser and stronger reactions 
against injurious ideas. 

Do I find myself lazy? Then shall I understand 
inertia and its arduousness. Do I find myself 
lacking in decision? Then shall I understand the 
forces that destroy my power of will, turning them 
into understanding and by understanding into new 
sources of will power and decision. Do I find my¬ 
self listless and self pitying? Then shall I see that 
physical forces are controlling my superior con¬ 
scious force, convicting me of mental weakness in 
my manner and my speech. 

My best mental forces shall this day have every 
contributing strength of my will, and my cheerful 
intentions of self improvement. 


136 


CHAPTER XXI 


THIRD DAY—MY MENTAL WORLD 

My mind is my mental world. I control my 
mind, and thereby control the kind of world in 
which I shall live. It is in my power to make my 
world a more beautiful world in which to live, a 
nobler and more profitable world in which to work, 
a happier and pleasanter world in which to play. 

There is nothing viewable in which I may not 
find beauty and wonder, inspiration and hope, if I 
will but understand. There is nothing thinkable 
which may not be fine and true and ennobling, if I 
will but see it in its proper relation. There is no 
act by which I may not obtain suggestions for finer, 
more accurate action. 

If I relinquish my world to external forces then 
will I know weakness. If I bow to disturbing and 
untruthful conclusions, then will I know unhappi¬ 
ness. If I respond in my actions to unconsidered 

ideas, then will I know regret. 

137 


REACTIONALYSIS 


And so I will govern my world with wisdom, and 
justice, and enact laws which shall keep my world 
clean and beautiful, orderly and quiet, productive 
and progressive. 

I am king of my world and I am responsible for 
every unclean street and dangerous avenue, just 
as I am responsible for the beauty and charm and 
hope and fineness that others see when they obtain 
a glimpse into my world of self. 


138 


CHAPTER XXII 

FOURTH DAY—MY CHARACTER 

My character is my reaction to certain percep¬ 
tions. At any instant it is a definite existing tend¬ 
ency. At any future time my character will be 
governed by my present tendencies as they will be 
modified at that future time. 

I see that employers, husbands, wives and all 
humans have faith in character. They expect a 
certain stability in the nature of others, and I now 
see that because of the mental-etheric nature of 
thought this expectation is justified. 

The kind of reaction expected is based on the 
kind of character we have seen in others. We ex¬ 
pect honesty where we have seen it practiced. We 
expect integrity where we have found it expressed. 
We expect big things from big men, and are sur¬ 
prised and disappointed when they are not 
achieved. 

My character is the standard of worth and moral 

139 


RE A CTION AL Y SIS 


stability by which others may judge me. It is a 
high standard as I have high principles. It is a 
standard to inspire strong confidence if it is con¬ 
stant. 

This day I will notice the things which are form¬ 
ing my character. Integrity, honor, strength of 
principle, industry, constancy and every other 
quality by which I am judged, appraised and 
trusted. 

Aside from the field of morals I see that there 
is character of emotions. It is my character to be 
cheerful and friendly, cold or ill-humored. These 
qualities I will watch this day and make mine a 
more engaging character. 

I also see a character of will and determination, 
a character either of day-dreaming or trained imagi¬ 
nation, a character of attention or vague vacillating 
interest, a character of reason or lack of judgment. 
My character is my formed tendency or disposition, 
governing the way in which I think or act. I can¬ 
not belie my character or give it colorings that are 
not inherent in me. My character is the permanent 
side of my personality at any moment, and its very 
permanence makes it vital that I should not lose a 
day in its development. 

140 


CHAPTER XXIII 

FIFTH DAY—MY ATTENTION 

My attention is one of my mental forces of great 
power when exercised, for it governs what shall be 
allowed in my mind. My power to attend to cer¬ 
tain things in the outside world, shuts out the in¬ 
fluence of distracting sensations. My attention to 
a train of thought removes the disturbing influence 
of outer sounds and sights. My attention given 
to my purposes, my habits and my progress adds 
its force to that of my will. As I can attend, so am 
I a higher thinking being, less animated and con¬ 
trolled by things without. 

My power of attention is only as strong as I 
have developed it to this day. With greater de¬ 
velopment I shall find less effort in its exercise, 
and only by its development can I find freedom 
from the influences which distract me from my pur¬ 
poses, interrupt my thoughts, swerve my reason 

into senseless imaginations. 

141 


REACTIONALYSIS 


Today, in my daily work and play, I will im¬ 
prove my power to attend. I will not allow dis¬ 
tracting, distressing or unimportant ideas to clog 
my reasonings. I will attend closely, with easy 
poise and unstrained observation. I will attend 
today, and note my failures only as a spur to 
steadier and more determined attention. 


142 


CHAPTER XXIV 


SIXTH DAY—MY INTEREST 

I see that interest secures for me the same re¬ 
sults as I obtain by attending, except only that I 
find no effort. Where I can create interest I shall 
remove the conscious effort of attention. I must 
therefore know what forces create that of interest. 

As I look back I remember that the subjects 
which interest me now looked forbidding and unin¬ 
teresting until I understood them. Even when my 
understanding was difficult, and needed consistent 
application of attention, my interest was aroused 
as soon as the path became easier. Understanding 
therefore creates interest. 

Curiosity arouses my interest. The connection 

j 

of a thing with my friends or my work or purpose 
arouses my interest. If therefore I lack interest 
in certain things which I recognize as important 
to me, I but need to attend to those important, or 

curious features of the thing knowing that my in- 

143 


REACTIONALYSIS 


terest may be created in this way. I must also 
clarify understanding, knowing that any effort 
involved will be rewarded by the ease and pleasure 
of interest. 

I recognize the necessity of interests, the pleas¬ 
ure and relaxation of interests. I will this day 
clarify my interests and add to them, for the richer, 
fuller and easier mental life they create. But I 
will not neglect to examine their wisdom before 
giving them full play. 


144 


CHAPTER XXV 
SEVENTH DAY—MY OBSERVATION 

I see the wisdom of observation of details, in 
that, as my mind is but the sum of many complex 
traits and tendencies, so everything observable is 
but the sum of many details, each of which has a 
varying importance. 

Careful observation gives clearer understanding 
and a truer basis for judgment and action, and 
while I recognize the impossibility of observing 
every detail of all things, yet to many matters that 
come to my attention I give too quick and embrac¬ 
ing a view. In important matters therefore I will 
this day give closer and more observing interest. 
I will dissect each idea, comparing it with other 
ideas. I will look for detail, for units before I 
judge the whole. 

I will see how many engaging qualities my 

friends possess, to which I have heretofore been 

145 


REACTIONALYSIS 


blind. I will examine the reasons for the strength 
of certain individuals, of which I have heretofore 
been unaware. I will at every opportunity give 
myself greater understanding this day as under¬ 
standing may be gained by closer and more careful 
observation. 

My habits, my manners, my speech, my every 
action should improve if I but take advantage of 
my powers of observation. I will make this day 
pleasant in new discoveries that lie before me in 
every conversation, glance and action of my 
fellows. 


146 


CHAPTER XXVI 

EIGHTH DAY—MY SELECTION 

I see the difference between voluntary and in¬ 
voluntary attention. I recognize that my atten¬ 
tion can be “caught” by unusual sights and sounds 
and that they seize my imagination, controlling 
me because I am not alert; whereas I should reject 
them as soon as they are perceived. I see the child¬ 
ish mind controlled almost entirely by these outer 
influences. I see abler minds noting and rejecting 
with ease the sensations that harass productive 
thought. I see the necessity of training my atten¬ 
tion to be voluntary—not involuntary on my part. 

Because oft repeated actions are not so strongly 
conscious, I see that to train my mind in this re¬ 
spect will permit me to perceive and reject unim¬ 
portant ideas with ever increasing ease, freeing my 
mind from control by external things; removing 

the necessity of conscious tussles; saving the loss 

147 


REACTION ALYSIS 


of time in constantly getting back to the work in 
mind. 

This day I will give my attention only to those 
things which help my purposes, knowing that in 
this I am laying the foundation of stronger will, 
clearer understanding, faster and more accurate 
thought. My attention this day shall be voluntary 
—not the vacillating attention of the child. I will 
select the subjects of my thought. 


148 


CHAPTER XXVII 


NINTH DAY—MY MEMORY 

My memory comprises most of my mental world. 
If I can see its objects clearly I am better able to 
move along the paths of progress. Clear, quick 
memory is so valuable that I will this day acquire 
habits of thought that shall improve my memory. 

Close attention gives a greater force of atten¬ 
tion and a more definite understanding. I shall 
therefore give full attention to thoughts which I 
wish to remember. Clear understanding gives the 
force of interest and I remember the things which 
interest me better than those which do not. I shall 
therefore obtain clearer understanding of those 
things which I wish to remember. 

I observe that all nature is in a regulated system 
and that all objects when fully understood show a 
relation to all other objects. I also observe that 

ideas, based on the relation of ether, are also re- 

149 


REACTIONALYSIS 


lated, being degrees of meanings of comparatively 
few fundamental truths. There is no limit to my 
memory, therefore, but the limitation of my own 
lack of understanding. If I can but complete my 
knowledge in those fields where it breaks off be¬ 
fore it can connect up with other truths, I shall have 
a perfect arrangement of my ideas—a true associa¬ 
tion of my ideas. Gaps in my knowledge mean 
gaps in my memory. I will this day attend to the 
relating of my ideas by the forces of understanding 
and attention. 


150 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

TENTH DAY—MY INFORMATION 

I recognize in the information at my disposal 
a more or less limited understanding. The greater 
information of timely or related value that I can 
gather, the more easily shall I find precepts and 
experiences to guide me. All knowledge is related 
and the more relations between ideas I can under¬ 
stand, the more I shall reach understanding of all 
things. There is no kind of information that may 
not give greater clarity to my purposes and 
thoughts, if I will but seek the principles which 
connect one fact with another. 

I see that broad information may be as easily a 
characteristic of a being as limited knowledge. 
There is no principle which limits the number of 
things which I may know. I may know all things 
if I but search for them. 

This day I will seek information. I will find 

151 


V 


REACTIONALYSIS 

new facts of interest and value in the objects 
around me. I will find new insights into the char¬ 
acteristics of others. I will seek the new piece of 
knowledge and find its relation to my present 
knowledge. I will not refuse my attention to facts 
merely because they do not interest me. I will 
review my reading and my recreation in the light 
of the new information they give me. I will seek 
every new idea which shall seem to be true and 
acceptable. I will enlarge my knowledge of fields 
of human endeavor of which I am now ignorant. 

“What do I know of it?” shall be my question of 
each new subject. I will this day improve myself 
as a well informed individual. 


152 


CHAPTER XXIX 

ELEVENTH DAY—MY IMAGINATION 

My imagination is my power to multiply, divide 
or transpose my ideas. It is the faculty by which 
I create, invent, presuppose. Uncontrolled it is 
my weakness of day-dreaming, of abstraction, of 
purposeless thinking. Controlled, it is my power 
of progress beyond present knowledge, it is my art, 
my philosophy, my faith. 

By imagination I may make my mental world 
beautiful or sordid, hopeful or downcast, creative 
or destructive. Imagination without purpose is a 
desecration of this sublime force within me. Imagi¬ 
nation without reason is to live in a world of un¬ 
reality which will mock me as it plays to my senses. 
Imagination without will is a fruitless imagination, 
better left unimagined. 

This day I will make my imagination work. I 
will bound it with reason, direct it with purpose, 

convert it into action with will. I will check it from 

153 


REA CTION AL YSIS 


wandering; set it tasks to clear, use it for the con¬ 
ception of inspiring results; not vague and improb¬ 
able pictures. I will stir it to serve me but never 
govern me. I will prod it when it languishes. I 
will supplant it with other forces when it has served 
my purpose. This day I will imagine with greater 
accomplishment for I will guide this great power 
within me. 


CHAPTER XXX 


TWELFTH DAY—MY REASON 

My reason is my ability to compare ideas in se¬ 
quence with a view to reaching a decision. I ob¬ 
serve that my reason is perfect as my force of 
attention gives it direction. I see that my reason 
will be powerful in the degree that I have know¬ 
ledge to compare. I see that my every reasoning 
lays the foundation for broader, sounder reasonings 
in the future. I notice that as my reasoning feels 
thorough so are my decisions stronger and that no 
force of fear of error destroys the clarity of my 
will. 

This day, I will make my reasonings more per¬ 
fect. I will make use of attention and observation 
to give reason wider scope. I will compare more 
carefully, to give reason finer degrees of balance. 
I will state the purpose of my reasoning with more 
detail, giving the force of clear understanding to 

my objective. I then will allow no contrary pur- 

155 


REACTIONAL YSIS 


pose to interrupt my reasoning. In this way I shall 
lay the basis in my mind for faster and more 
accurate reasonings in the future. 

As my reasoning creates forces of understand¬ 
ing so will I turn these forces again into reason of 
stronger force. My power to reason determines 
the wisdom of my actions and the perfection of my 
understanding. This day I will find more perfect 
understanding by more systematic use of my rea¬ 
soning force. 


156 


CHAPTER XXXI 

THIRTEENTH DAY—MY DISCERNMENT 

I recognize in keen powers of discernment a 
valuable faculty in life. And since discernment is 
a force of mind susceptible to creation from other 
forces, it is also susceptible to training. Discern¬ 
ment, I see, is the power of distinguishing differ¬ 
ences in ideas or things. It is the ability to look 
beneath the surface, knowing the motives and 
causes of things. Discernment sees fine distinc¬ 
tions. It is subtle, analytical and wise. 

Discernment inquires beyond the normal in¬ 
quiry. It is dissatisfied with superficial explana¬ 
tion. It seeks to find fundamental principles in 
all things. 

Discernment operates through close observation 
and quick judgment. It has the penetration of 
previous discernments and past experience. 

This day I will acquire a keener power of dis¬ 
cernment. I will inquire into the causes that 

157 


REACTIONALYSIS 


prompt the requests and remarks that are ad¬ 
dressed to me. I will see things in their relation 
to underlying principles. I will study problems 
with more attention to their causes and conse¬ 
quences than is my custom. 

I will not confuse discernment, which is know¬ 
ledge, with suspicion, which is belief. And I will 
not give to discernment the belief of accuracy until 
it is confirmed by reason and judgment. I will but 
exercise more care and penetration, insight and 
examination into the things which now are felt as 
obvious but may hold greater values for me if I 
could but discern their hidden meanings and 
wisdom. 


158 


CHAPTER XXXII 


FOURTEENTH DAY—MY UNDERSTANDING 

In the perfection of my understanding will I 
find new truths to govern and guide me. I see 
that I like people whom I understand. I see in 
understanding the foundation of tolerance, of love 
and sympathy. I see in understanding power and 
the strength to guide. I see in understanding 
broader, finer qualities of being. I see in under¬ 
standing peace and resignation, hope and faith. 

I find no fear in the things I understand. I find 
no worry or complexity in the things which are 
clear to me. I find no anger and scorn toward 
those I understand. 

Understanding turns hate into pity, disgust into 
compassion, acquaintance into friendship, respect 
into love. 

This day I will try to understand people and 
things to a larger degree. I will lay out my read¬ 
ing and work in more intelligent fashion. With my 

159 


REACTIONALYSIS 


powers of ingenuity I will find many ways in which 
to obtain greater understanding and acquire the 
security of mind, the inspiration of courage, the 
hope of reason in a finer, truer, greater understand¬ 
ing. 

As I understand principles so can I rest my 
future upon them. As I understand facts, so can 
I know the soundness of my reasonings. As I 
understand people so may I trust them, guide them 
and love them. 


160 


CHAPTER XXXIII 

FIFTEENTH DAY—MY INSTINCT 

I recognize in my instincts an inherent tendency 
to do certain things. It is my instinct to love and 
to hope, to eat and to sleep. I recognize an ability 
to control my instincts to a greater or lesser degree. 
And in this control to change and modify my 
instincts. 

I have no difficulty in determining when my in¬ 
stincts should have free reign and when they should 
be controlled. I recognize in the abuse of my in¬ 
stincts an abuse of my health. I recognize the need 
of a sound body to give soundness to the things 
perceivable by my mind. 

This day, I will regulate my reaction to my in¬ 
stincts. Whenever they are involved in the percep¬ 
tions that come to me, then will I control them. I 
see animals motivated almost entirely by instinct. 
I myself pretend to greater power. I will make 

my pretense an actuality. It is my instinct to 

161 


REACTIONALYSIS 


cringe before fear. It is my courage to face and 
banish fear. It is my instinct to eat to satiety. It 
is my wisdom to be moderate. My uncontrolled in¬ 
stincts produce excesses. I will therefore practice 
temperance in all actions prompted by instinct. I 
will obey my instincts only as I feel they perfect 
me in my habits, emotions and thoughts. I recog¬ 
nize that my perception of instinct is a mental 
force which I can change into other mental forces. 
Instincts which I find harmful I will modify by 
the force of understanding or will or by giving 
attention to other things. 


162 


CHAPTER XXXIV 


SIXTEENTH DAY—MY FORESIGHT 

It is given to me to exercise foresight to a certain 
degree. That I may increase this degree I know 
by comparing my present foresight with that of 
earlier years. I can easily foretell my main actions 
on the morrow, as I can foretell the results that 
will follow my young friend’s enthusiastic effort in 
his new hobby. 

But there are many incidents in my daily life, of 
adverse effect upon me, which I should have seen 
developing and should have foretold, while I see 
that if I give a little more care to the things about 
me I shall often be able to adjust myself to occur¬ 
rences before they manifest themselves. 

I see causes and effects in all happenings and I 
see that certain causes have certain effects. If I 
can increase my knowledge of what effects follow 

given causes, I shall be better able to respond to 

163 


REACTIONALYSIS 


causes not in my control and to institute causes for 
the effects I wish to create. 

This day I will study my life and my purposes 
as they are motivated by the causes and effects that 
influence them. I will endeavor to increase my 
foresight in all matters which affect me. In rela¬ 
tionships, in economics, in morals and in character 
I see the law of cause and effect. I will this day 
observe those causes which affect me wisely and 
remove those influences which rob me of progress 
or happiness. I will exercise greater foresight. 


164 


CHAPTER XXXV 


SEVENTEENTH DAY—MY EMOTION 

My emotions are the feelings of pleasure and 
pain that accompany certain ideas of mine. The 
emotions of pain, I notice, contract and harass my 
ideas. Fear, anger, hatred, depression, despair are 
forces which cramp my thoughts, while the emo¬ 
tions of courage, love, cheerfulness and hope en¬ 
large my views and give me a wonderful freedom 
of mind and will to accomplish. 

It is therefore wiser to encourage emotions of 
pleasure, and I should bring them to bear to the 
largest degree dictated by wisdom. Emotions of 
pain I should check. My anger at a sense of in¬ 
jury I should modify with a just appreciation of 
the injury and its future prevention. To exagger¬ 
ate the injury will but increase its effect. My 
physical pain I can and should combat, as soon as 
I have noted and corrected its causes. 

The emotions of inspiration, power, satisfaction, 

165 


REACTION AL Y SIS 


hope and faith will lend the strengths of their forces 
to all my purposes and should be given full reign. 
Pleasurable emotions improve my power of ex¬ 
pression, in thought and act. 

This day I will control my emotions to a larger 
degree. I will find the sense of elevation and 
power that comes by checking emotions of annoy¬ 
ance, irritability and anger. I will find the in¬ 
creased inspiration, happiness and confidence of 
cheerfulness. 

I will acquire the calm, unruffled attitude that I 
know is in my power to maintain, and will not be 
stampeded into excitement, fears or depressions. 

Strength is always calm. Weakness rails and 
complains. This day I will be strong. 


166 


CHAPTER XXXVI 


EIGHTEENTH DAY—MY CHEERFULNESS 

I recognize in cheerfulness an emotional habit 
which makes all labor and living easier. I notice 
a faster operation of my ideas when I am cheerful; 
that my thoughts are directed to outside things; 
that there is greater will to accomplish and achieve; 
better understanding of others, and that others give 
me more elbow room when I take my place with 
cheer. 

When I am depressed, I notice that it is difficult 
to keep my mind off myself; that my thoughts con¬ 
tinually revert to my hardships and burdens, and 
that I thus find difficulty in accomplishing my de¬ 
sires. 

Both cheerfulness and depression are mental 
forces and if I will but know it, I can turn my force 
of depression into one of cheerfulness. This takes 
a little time and I must rout depression again and 
again before cheerfulness becomes an habitual re- 

167 


REACTIONALYSIS 


action within me. I observe that youth is more 
subject to depression than age, and I must see that 
just as we may gradually come to accept life with 
cheer so may we make faster progress if we will but 
acknowledge the necessity of development. 

I am the main one to suffer by a lack of cheerful¬ 
ness, and any depression I may have is the result 
of my tolerance of depression. 

This day I will cultivate cheerfulness. I will 
probably find grumpy people slightly amusing. I 
will surprise my friends with my cordiality and will 
enjoy their response to it. My business associates 
will find a new strength in me for my problems 
shall not be greater than my cheerfulness and I 
shall find their importance reduced as I attack 
them with a smile. 


168 


CHAPTER XXXVII 

NINETEENTH DAY—MY WILL 

I see that my will is a force which enters into my 
every mental action. It gives its strength to my 
attention, my imagination, my reason and my de¬ 
cision. It checks my instincts and my emotions. 
It is my power to change one mental force into 
another as it may itself be changed by other mental 
forces. 

Since the strength of my will is but the sum of 
my every slightest use of it in all my life, I recog¬ 
nize that weakness of will in any single act reduces 
its total strength to the same degree. When the 
idea of self-indulgence is accompanied by a higher 
force of will than my idea of duty, I will dodge my 
duty, and lay the foundation for evading it in the 
future. 

This day, I will exercise my will with greater 
wisdom and with more decision. I will carry out 

the acts of my will with deliberation and conscious 

169 


REACTIONALYSIS 


care. I will take this day to prove my strength of 
will, to win every battle set before it. I will not 
vacillate in my decisions. I will not falter in my 
actions. I will allow no timidity. In attention, 
in judgment, in imagination I will use my will. 
My decisions shall be carefully made but irrevoca¬ 
ble when my will stands for a certain action. 

With judgment and understanding as its guid¬ 
ing forces, my will shall lay the foundation for 

stronger character, greater courage and higher 

* 

motives from this day on. 


170 


CHAPTER XXXVIII 

TWENTIETH DAY—-MY COURAGE 

My courage is my sense of strength to do. My 
fearlessness before obstacles. My certainty of 
power. Courage is constructive, outward looking. 
Fear is destructive, with eyes turned on an exag¬ 
gerated idea of self. 

Courage, like love and hope and faith and in¬ 
spiration quickens the thoughts of men and sends 
them forth to work and win with a smile on their 
lips and a confident certainty in their hearts. Fear, 
like hate and despair, curdles the blood and de¬ 
stroys the will to do. 

But courage is consciousness, the very stuff of 
which fear is made. And the forces of courage can 
be created by the destruction of the forces of fear. 

This day I will conquer all the little fears, the 
worthless hates, the weak despairs, turning them 
into units of courage and hope that shall make a 

sum that is courageous indeed. 

171 


RE ACTIONAL Y SIS 


My courage exists—it is there to be felt and to 
inspire me. Rob it I can of its power. But so can 
I reinforce it to greater strengths than before. 
What shall I meet today that my courage of yester¬ 
day could not cope with? What plan or purpose 
dares to fling the gage to my courage? Am I in a 
business rut? Do I let Mrs. Jones patronize me? 
Have I cringed before the wealth of my neighbor? 
Insignificant, trivial things to engage my atten¬ 
tion, to flaunt themselves before my courage and 
self-power. What fine thing, what great task, can 
I set my courage to conquer? 


CHAPTER XXXIX 

TWENTY-FIRST DAY—MY DISCRETION 

Discretion is a negative power. It is the brake 
on impulsiveness. It is the curb on unwisdom. 
Discretion closes the lips against the voice of haste. 
It keeps the arms to the side when anger or im¬ 
prudence rushes to act. 

Discretion knows the value of time, the wisdom 
of withheld judgment. Discretion realizes that the 
surest ends are the result of sure steps. 

People trust discretion, for discretion lives with 
itself in contentment. Discretion is strong, need¬ 
ing no mother’s lap to receive its tears; needing no 
listener to share its joys. 

Indiscretion is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It 
counsels rashness but is absent at the moment of 
despair. It stands behind spite, but disappears 
when vengeance appears. Discretion is the truest 
friend a man can have. It is his own best counselor. 

This day I will be discreet. I will ponder be- 

173 


REACTIONALYSIS 


fore I speak or act. I will fear impulsiveness and 
hesitate before unwisdom. I will say nothing which 
is not well considered and will withhold every word 
or act which like a boomerang may return to in¬ 
jure me. I will be prudent, realizing that time 
gives the clearer-eyed perspective of distance. I 
will be less ready to state my purposes and plans 
to others lest they rob themselves of their indi¬ 
viduality and escape on the air of words. Discre¬ 
tion saves me from error, governs me by wisdom, 
curbs my emotions, helps my understanding, directs 
my will. This day will I be discreet in all things, 
enlarging my personal power by storing it with 
resolve, prudence and sagacity. 


174 


CHAPTER XL 


TWENTY-SECOND DAY—MY HUMILITY 

Humility gives vision and greater perspective. 
Exaggeration of self always directs the mind to 
the conclusions we have already formed, while 
humility doubts our own conclusions and turns the 
mind outward to new thoughts and new confirma¬ 
tions of what we already think. 

Vanity is consciousness of self. Humility is 
consciousness of self compared to greater and finer 
conceptions. 

Humility begets affection, for others recognize 
the justice and mercy of humility. We doubt him 
who acclaims his skill or superiority, but we readily 
grant skill to him who is humble in his attainments. 

Humility is not self-depreciation. It is some¬ 
times tinged with the force of achievement, but al¬ 
ways humility is conscious that even this 
achievement is slight in comparison with the finer 
works it visualizes. 


175 


REACTIONALYSIS 


My sense of humility will endear me to others, 
will speed me on by its pictures of finer objectives, 
will present me with more honesty and honesty is 
always recognized. Humility will save me disap¬ 
pointments for it will not permit me to exaggerate 
the values of my deeds. 

This day I will exercise a greater humility, that 
my vision may be enlarged, my understanding 
clarified, my will strengthened and my purposes 
made finer and greater. 


176 


CHAPTER XLI 

TWENTY-THIRD DAY—MY PURPOSES 

My purposes are my central perceptions, gov¬ 
erning my interests, my attention, my will and my 
whole life. In the degree that my purposes are 
big so will my viewpoint toward all things en¬ 
large. As my purposes are clear so will my whole 
way of life be clear. As my purposes are sound 
and worthy so will my path be free of stumblings 
and dissatisfactions. As my purposes are stable 
and strong, so will my progress be swift and un¬ 
marked by vacillations and interruptions. As my 
purposes are noble and unselfish, so will they set 
their mark on my character, ennobling me as they 
are achieved. 

This day I will clarify my purposes to myself 
and give the force of understanding to the rejec¬ 
tion of hindering situations. I will give my pur¬ 
poses a wider and more embracing character. I 

177 


REACTIONALYSIS 


will review them and judge the means for their 
accomplishment. 

I will spend this day for the furtherance of my 
purposes, noting those influences which I have al¬ 
lowed to divert me; seizing those opportunites 
which will help their fulfillment. 

I see that my purposes enter into my every 
thought, welcoming this idea, fretting under that 
prospect. I see that clear worthy purposes will in 
a little while give me a clear, plain road to travel, 
making the bypaths less inviting as they show me 
the ease of traversing the wider road. The short¬ 
est distance to success is the straight road that leads 
to my purpose. This day I will see that the char¬ 
acter of my destination is worth reaching for then 
I will increase my desire to reach it. 


178 


CHAPTER XLII 


TWENTY-FOURTH DAY—MY WORK 

I see that all things in nature perform work of 
various kinds, and although I can not see the ulti¬ 
mate purpose I can understand that it is a law of 
nature that man must work. This is confirmed in 
my mind when I notice how pleased I feel when I 
accomplish things and how depressed I am when 
I am idle. I further notice that the importance of 
the achievement governs the degree of pleasure 
obtained. 

My work then should be a source of great pleas¬ 
ure to me, and if it is not, this displeasure is caused 
by other forces, which I will this day correct or 
supplant. 

I also see that my pleasure in life is determined 
by the quantity of work I can encompass, and since 
I find the fact of fatigue when long engaged upon 
one occupation I see that my capacity for work 

may he increased by a change of kind of work. If 

179 


REACTIONALYSIS 


my daily work is one of practical application, I may 
find both pleasure and profit in examining theoreti¬ 
cal principles as a relaxation. 

I now see the mental importance of a hobby, 
especially if it is of constructive nature. 

This day I will work more assiduously and with 
greater accomplishment. I will study the nature 
of my work, and find other interests to supplement 
those fields of knowledge about my work that I do 
not have opportunity of learning during the day. 
I will put a higher estimate upon my work, lifting 
it by my personality to a higher importance and 
value. 

I must recognize that in my work there lies my 
best opportunity for advancement and success and 
that all men are judged by their work, in the regard 
given to them by others. This day I will turn the 
dross of work into the gold of accomplishment. 


180 


CHAPTER XLIII 

TWENTY-FIFTH DAY—MY KNOWLEDGE 

My knowledge, I see, is the memory material I 
have gained through people, books, things and ex¬ 
perience. I see that my imagination is largely 
limited to things which I have seen or heard. That 
the amount of knowledge I have governs the pro¬ 
ductiveness of my imagination. Similarly, my 
understanding, my reason and my purposes are 
all limited by the things I know. 

I find my knowledge scanty for my purposes in 
certain fields. This day I will note my limitations 
in fields of knowledge and perfect these sides of 
my understanding. I will notice what subjects of 
valuable nature arise in conversation with which 
I am unfamiliar and determine to correct my fail¬ 
ings in these respects. 

I see the deference given to those who know their 
subjects. I see the desire of others to seek the 

help of those who can help them. In my business 

181 


REACTIONALYSIS 


and social life I see that knowledge is the very 
basis of confidence and that knowledge must be 
sound and thorough and embracing to maintain 
that confidence. 

Without the confidence of others, I can expect 
no lift to success, no appreciation of my efforts. I 
will therefore complete my knowledge, whether in 
my specialized field or my broader activities. I see 
no limit to human knowledge beyond that of my 
individual purpose. I see no limit to the things I 
may remember. My consciousness can digest all 
things to be seen or known. This day I will make it 
my purpose to know. 


182 


CHAPTER XLIV 


TWENTY-SIXTH DAY—MY EXPERIENCE 

I recognize in my experience the most power¬ 
ful knowledge I possess. I believe the things in my 
personal experience. I feel them as true things to 
a larger degree than the experiences of which I 
read or hear. 

If I could give the same force of reality to those 
experiences of others of which I believe but feel as 
unaffecting me I should enlarge my own experi¬ 
ence. 

In biographies of great men I find much good 
advice and much rich experience. If I could read 
them with closer attention to the principles involved 
they would greatly enlarge my vision and my own 
experience. I see the experiences of those around 
me and if I but interpret them with full apprecia¬ 
tion of their reality I shall find myself rich in sound 
precedents upon which to base decisions and to 
guide my way. 


183 


REACTIONALYSIS 


This day I will gain experience not only through 
my own actions but through the eyes and ears of 
others. I will note causes and effects with closer 
observation. I will look for experience as it makes 
for success, for happiness and for improvement. I 
will avoid harmful, useless experiences. I will seek 
valuable experience and increase my powers of 
discrimination between worthwhile and unimpor¬ 
tant experience. 

Opportunity finds a readier answer when she 
knocks on the door of Experience. 


184 


CHAPTER XLV 

TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY—MY SUCCESS 

My success is the accomplishment of my pur¬ 
poses of whatever nature. The greatness of my 
success depends upon the worth of my purpose. 
The speed of my success depends upon the intent¬ 
ness with which I pursue my purpose. The cer¬ 
tainty of my success is governed by the resoluteness 
with which I undertake it. 

Herein I see a vital principle. To succeed in 
the various stages is to reach my ultimate goal. If 
I swerve to the fascinating view to the right or the 
restful glen to the left, I postpone my progress on 
the road to my purpose. If I am attracted to a 
nearer goal to the right or left, I have to retrace 
my steps if I again desire to reach my original 
goal. If I weaken and turn back, it will be more 
difficult to summon courage to start again. 

I may stumble here and there and be delayed 

185 


REACTIONALYSIS 


awhile, but only if I leave the road do I bow to 
defeat or weaken in my pilgrimage. 

Direct, constant effort must reach my objective 
more quickly.. Must be crowned with success more 
surely. Must give the greatest encouragement as 
each mile-post shows a definite degree of progress. 

A straight line is the shortest distance between 
two points. I will this day draw the line to follow, 
and traverse it with constancy and knowledge that 
I am making the fastest progress of which I am 
personally capable. 


186 


CHAPTER XLVI 

TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY—MY CAREFULNESS 

I recognize in genius the ability to take pains, 
to exercise unlimited care. Carefulness, as a 
guardian against error, is a preventer of self-abase¬ 
ment. Carefulness, as a guide to right, is a saver 
of time. Carefulness, as a habit which can be ac¬ 
quired as easily as carelessness, will this day be the 
force for my attentive exercise. 

Care in observation and attention, care in my 
thinking, care in my actions, care in my work and 
care in my play, will leave me a more careful indi¬ 
vidual at this day’s end. 

Care and caution, I perceive, are not admissions 
of fear but proof of wisdom. I shall therefore not 
be ashamed into hurried understandings nor will I 
yield to persuasions that I have not studied with 
care. 

Care is not evidence of slow wit, but of prudent 

reasoning. I shall therefore take sufficient time in 

187 


REACTIONALYSIS 


forming judgments to be sure of their soundness, 
knowing that I am in this way making the great¬ 
est accomplishment in a given time that I am able 
wisely to make. 

It is not hard for me to remember many worries 
caused by carelessness. These I will save myself 
in the future, for today I will make myself more 
careful in my mind—from which source I can here¬ 
after expect a greater degree of carefulness. 


188 



CHAPTER XLVII 

TWENTY-NINTH DAY—MY EARNESTNESS 

I see in earnest people a greater force in their 
influence upon others. Earnestness I must recog¬ 
nize as a real force in my thoughts and expressions. 
Strong intents and fervent determinations make 
up the force of earnestness. Honesty strengthens 
it. Expectation of acquiescence inspires its fullest 
expression. 

If I am earnest in my efforts, they will be more 
often crowned with success. I can acquire the 
quality of earnestness if I will but know the forces 
that create it. These, I see, are the worthiness of 
my desire, its integrity and soundness, the frank¬ 
ness with which I state it to myself; and the ab¬ 
sence of reservations for personal gain or advan¬ 
tage. 

With these forces created I shall find the force 

of earnestness for they will of themselves inspire 

189 


REACTIONALYSIS 


in me the force of earnest, hopeful, expectant 
desire. 

Earnest people are liked, are believed and re¬ 
spected. Earnest people are loved. Earnestness 
is hard to refuse, because of its very nature it be¬ 
lieves that its demands shall in some way bless the 
giver. This day I will be more earnest in my atti¬ 
tude and reap the pleasures of good will, and vol¬ 
untary yielding to my ideas and wants. 


190 


CHAPTER XLVIII 


THIRTIETH DAY—MY SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS 

This I see is not consciousness of self at all, but 
consciousness of what others may be thinking or 
saying of me. It is consciousness of myself only 
insofar as I recognize the figure I present before 
others. 

But I also see that I have no self-consciousness 
with certain individuals; and that I am at ease, 
finding appreciation and understanding on their 
part. 

And since I appear the same in both cases, then 
it is my imagination that is at fault. I obviously 
attribute unkindness where it is quite possibly 
never felt, and I attribute attention to me where 
it is quite possibly never given! 

The force of self-consciousness is very plainly 
composed of the forces of vanity and of self-depre¬ 
ciation. This day I will supplant the force of 

vanity with the force of interest towards others. I 

191 


REACTIONALYSIS 


will inspect them rather than imagine they are 
inspecting me. And I will supplant the force of 
self-depreciation with the force of will. 

Self-consciousness is entirely too weak a whim 
to be allowed to persist and is entirely too trouble¬ 
some and exaggerated a complaint for me to lose 
the pleasure in others that they are waiting to 
give me if I will but do my part in giving my 
interest to them and their ideas. I see I am en¬ 
tirely too self-contained and am depending on my 
own judgments too much. I will this day see how 
much kindliness and welcome is waiting for my 
interest and sympathy. 


192 


CHAPTER XLIX 


THIRTY-FIRST DAY—MY POISE 

I recognize in poise the evidence of self- 
mastery. Poise in all situations shows a mind with¬ 
out panic or fear and a body under control of 
mind. 

I see that my mind is essentially the same as that 
of other men. That money, power and position 
do not give one man superiority over another— 
that the only degrees of inequality are those of 
mental capacity. No man, therefore, can shake 
my poise unless I attribute to him powers which 
he does not possess. And no tribute of fear or awe 
can be paid any man without admitting non-exist¬ 
ent powers. Respect, yes, but never fear—and 
lack of poise is fear. Fear of power, of ridicule, 
of accepted customs—but always fear. 

If I lack poise I admit inferiority. But I am 
conscious of no inferiority, for my character is mo¬ 
tivated by the same laws that motivate all beings. 

193 



t 


REACTIONALYSIS 

My emotion is the same as all emotion. My ease 
and security is based on my equality with others. 
All other standards are superficial and momentary. 
My consciousness equals that of other men. Only 
the objects of my consciousness may differ—and no 
man knows the objects of my consciousness. 

I may differ from another; but I am no less 
important, for I, too, am a unit in the great scheme 
of life. So will I find a new confidence in my 
associations with others, a new power in my under¬ 
standing of them, a new poise in my humility be¬ 
fore the great laws of life and a new pride and 
self-respect before men. 


194 


CHAPTER L 

THIRTY-SECOND DAY—MY HABITS 

I perceive in my habits a more physical ten¬ 
dency to react in certain ways. Less conscious 
force is expended. My habits either save my 
time or waste it. They either save me effort or 
create it. They govern me after I have formed 
them. Good habits keep me well, placid, contented 
and happy. Bad habits give me contests of mind 
and irregularities in my health. I am master of my 
thoughts, their direction, their custom until I form 
habits, when I become to greater or lesser degrees 
mastered by my habits. 

I observe that my every act forms and unforms 
habits and that those ill habits formed in the past 
must be undone by the formation of good habits in 
the future. 

This day I will review my habits. Decide which 

shall be changed and change them. The good habits 

195 


REACTIONALYSIS 


which I see in others but which are not at present 
mine, I will make mine. 

I see a law of regularity. That as my physical 
habits are regulated so does my body react after a 
while with like regularity. I see in mind that those 
things to which I have become attuned do not im¬ 
press themselves on my consciousness. If nature 
responds to regularity in body and mind and gives 
to this principle the force of a law, I am wasting 
my physical and mental powers when I do not take 
advantage of this law. 

I will therefore bring more regularity into my 
work, my recreation, my meals and my rest. In 
this way I shall cultivate habits of health and the 
greater enjoyment of reduced effort in all things. 


196 


CHAPTER LI 

y 

THIRTY-THIRD DAY—MY CONVERSATION 

My speech is my best means of conveying my 
thoughts to others. If it is clear in meaning it will 
prevent misunderstanding of me. If it is couched 
in good language it will please others to listen to 
me. If it is clean, it will not offend. If it is exact 
in terms, it will create accuracy. If it is fluent, it 
will charm the ear. If it is forceful, it will gain 
the point. If the nature behind it is sincere and 
earnest, it will be eloquent. 

My speech is important. It presents me to the 
minds of others. As its introduction is polished, 
clear, well intentioned so will others be glad to meet 
me. As its introduction is faltering and frail, bad 
mannered or inaccurate, so will I be unfairly pre¬ 
sented. 

My speech can be improved by reading aloud, 

by refraining in the use of words which I know to 

197 


REACTIONALYSIS 


be unsuitable, by good reading and by a better 
choice of companions. 

This day I will watch my speech and improve it. 
I will devise plans for reading aloud to others or 
myself. I will find many ways to insure a more 
graceful presentation in the future. 

In the effort to speak more clearly I shall have 
to think more clearly. To speak more accurately, 
think with greater accuracy. My speech is but the 
vocalizing of my thoughts. It will compliment or 
convict me every time I voice a sentence. 


198 


CHAPTER LII 


THIRTY-FOURTH DAY—MY DUTY 

I find myself in a world of fellow beings upon 
whom I depend for many services, and to whom I 
owe many comforts as they owe something to me. 

In this interdependent community of which I am 
a part, I expect others to respect me, to use no 
persecution against me, to give me free opportun¬ 
ity of expression and of labor. In turn I recognize 
my duty towards others. This duty expects of me 
courtesy, sympathy, cooperation of effort, quiet¬ 
ness, good humor, patience, trust, and fellowship. 

As I perform my duty in these respects, so I see 
I will enjoy a warmer welcome among others. 
Love begets love and friendship finds a response in 
friends. As an individual I may thus do my share 
in bringing about closer contact and more sympa¬ 
thetic understanding between humans. 

I do not want war. I do not want violence. I 

do not want oppression. And I see in unity of 

199 


REACTIONALYSIS 


understanding a positive prevention of these things. 
If all others subscribe to this purpose I see a 
happier, kindlier, more tolerant hmnanity. I at 
least can do my part, and I set this day as an ex¬ 
ample of all days to come in the personal responsi¬ 
bility that is mine to perform my duty to others. 
This day I will prove to myself that I can rise 
above anger and ill humor and by the nature of my 
thoughts lift others to the same level and largess of 
spirit. This day I will do my duty, with pleasure 
and with unselfishness purpose, satisfied to find 
within myself the force of higher control and finer 
purpose. 


200 


CHAPTER LIII 

THIRTY-FIFTH DAY—MY POWER 

My personal power as an individual I plainly 
see is my superiority over temptations of vice or 
weakness. My power is therefore purely my power 
over myself, and masterful people who are ac¬ 
cepted as leaders are such only in their mastery of 
themselves. 

To sway others I must attain a larger measure of 
power over my own thoughts and actions. I must 
cultivate deliberation, poise and the sense of my 
own self-mastery. I must not easily be swayed. 
I must weigh things with more care. I must com¬ 
bat influences which will weaken my own powers 
of volition. I must not fear to refuse those per¬ 
suasions of my friends which I do not wish to 
accept. 

I must gain a greater superiority in knowledge 
and understanding, in attention and will, in rea¬ 
son and imagination. I must have larger fields 

201 


REACTIONALYSIS 


of experience, bigger purposes for accomplishment, 
a larger faith in my abilities. 

My power is a thing of growth and I see why 
it is more often reposed in those of mature years. 
My power is the force of my personality, my total 
self. As an individual my personality will be 
strong as I am true to myself. My personality is a 
different thing from the personality of others— 
to perfect it I only am given the key to its nature. 
To improve it and make it interesting, engaging, 
and forceful it must be its purest expression of 
itself. 

To live, power must be just, and tempered with 
kindliness and good will. If it becomes tyrannical 
it creates forces against itself which shall surely 
win over it. True power is to inspire others, to lead 
others, to help and lift others to efforts they can not 
make alone. Abuse of power is to thwart others, 
to stultify their efforts, to force them. Force im¬ 
plies obstacles. Power implies a joining of effort 
and cooperation in purpose. This day I will give 
to the improvement of my personal power over 
myself and its use for the benefit of others. 


202 


CHAPTER LIV 

THIRTY-SIXTH DAY—MY DISPOSITION 

Emotion is a force created by other mental 
forces and in turn the creator of mental forces. 
Good humor, contentment and kindliness are all 
emotions. Sour temper, dissatisfaction and anger 
are also emotions of opposite nature. 

The force of good humor, I must admit, helps 
expression, prompts action and creates the force 
of interest. It turns the mind to outer things, 
breeding achievements and inspiration. Ill temper 
turns the mind within, creates the forces of griev¬ 
ance and vengeance. It slows the speed of ideas, 
hinders expression and kills inspiration, hope and 
every helpful emotion. 

My disposition, therefore, is a force to help or 
hurt me. Contentment and kindness are mental 
strengths as certain in their operation as strong will 
or trained attention. And since all mental forces 
are interchangeable there is no need for unhappi¬ 
ness and the principle of constant happiness lies 

203 


REACTIONALYSIS 


within my own mind. Injury to me should promote 
pity rather than vengeance, since that but hurts 
me more. 

This day I will be light in heart to prove to my¬ 
self that my every day may be bright if I will avoid 
or surmount the pettiness and narrow outlook of 
the misinformed and hopeless. I will examine my 
disposition, noting its defects, correcting its weak¬ 
nesses, exercising its constructive sides. 


204 


CHAPTER LV 

< 

THIRTY-SEVENTH DAY—MY NATURALNESS 

Naturalness is honesty of speech and action. 
Natural people are not actors. They are sincere, 
unassuming and wholly frank. Their friends like 
them for precisely what they are. Their acquaint¬ 
ances find them simple to understand and seek 
them as friends. In business the natural man is 
trusted and respected. He is easy to do business 
with and there are no jokers in his contracts. 

Our natural gifts are the finest we possess. We 
can never long successfully act a part that is not 
ours and when it is attempted it is at the cost of our 
truest abilities. 

It is another attribute of naturalness, I see, that 
marks one man from another and gives him indi¬ 
viduality and personal character. To ape another 
person and his characteristics is to depreciate one’s 
own. 

This day, I will cultivate a greater naturalness. 

205 


REACTIONALYSIS 


I will avoid affectations and all insincerities. If 
I find qualities non-existing which I would like to 
be mine, I will practice them but never act them. 
My character is subject to my control and im¬ 
provement, but pretence is never the reality. 

Just to be natural is the simplest thing to do, and 
yet the natural person is often hard to find, and 
when found is loved as no actor of a part is loved. 
The natural individual is always a more interesting 
and real being than the one who puts on the mask 
of fictitious rank in society or the absurd caste of 
wealth. 

If others like and love my natural self, then am 
I secure in such friendships as shall be mine. And 
will not my very naturalness rob others of their 
pretensions? 


206 


CHAPTER LVI 


THIRTY-EIGHTH DAY—MY IMPERFECTIONS 

I see that if beings had no imperfections there 
would exist no inequalities of character or know¬ 
ledge. Perfection is truth, and the nearer I ap¬ 
proach truth in my every thought the nearer shall 
I approach perfection. 

I now see why it is that we constitute ourselves 
as judges of others and that we bow to the judg¬ 
ments of others. But I further see that I have a 
recognition for truth and that there is within me 
the principle of exact judgment of what is true or 
untrue. I am a better judge of my imperfections 
than others, if I will but honestly face my own 
judgments. If I am too ready to excuse my im¬ 
perfections I shall not cure them. 

Many are the tricks by which I excuse my imper¬ 
fections. I even make a virtue of them, when more 

logical excuses are wanting. I point to other quali- 

207 


REACTIONALYSIS 


ties that are fine, saying that these overwhelm my 
vices, but I convince nobody, not even myself. 

This day I will view my imperfections with 
keener criticism and formulate actions that shall 
correct them. I shall not allow the myth that per¬ 
fection is unsociable or more than human to blind 
me, but I shall know that perfection brings people 
closer together, and that I shall know far dearer 
friendships and pleasures in others and they in me 
if I can but approach the common recognition for 
the things which are true. 


208 


CHAPTER LVII 


THIRTY-NINTH DAY—MY PERSISTENCE 

I see in my power to persist a relentless and ul¬ 
timately certain power of accomplishment. Per¬ 
sistence knows no failure and no compromise. It 
scoffs at burdens and odds. It never deviates from 
the object of its purpose. It is the quality of the 
successful and the arrived. It is luck. It is oppor¬ 
tunity. 

My power to persist may overcome my greatest 
deficiencies. I see business men, to whom educa¬ 
tion and opportunity have been denied, succeed 
merely because they could persist. I see the results 
of persistence in every fine work of art, in every 
useful thing made by man, in every nobility of 
character. 

This day I will review my objects in life as they 
present themselves. I will see those purposes dear 
to me in a new persistence which has already 

brought them nearer. I will see again the possibil- 

209 


REACTIONALYSIS 


ity of human achievement of any rightful objective 
and I will persist with renewed strength. 

The power of persistence is a mental force that 
refuses to cognize distractions but turns every help¬ 
ful influence into new forces of purpose and will. 
My powers of persistence are mine to control. 
This day will I control them and rejuvenate them, 
never allowing them to be snuffed out by the forces 
of despair or by the suggestion of less inspired in¬ 
dividuals. My persistence is my certain power to 
reach my desires. I know its certainty and nothing 
can destroy my knowledge. 


210 


CHAPTER LVIII 


FORTIETH DAY—MY EFFORT 

I feel a sense of effort in my physical and men¬ 
tal actions. This sense of effort is reduced with 
each repetition of a physical or mental act. And 
so I see that the greater effort I put forth disposes 
me to achieve bigger things with less effort. 

If, however, I allow the sense of effort to sway 
me from accomplishment, I form reactions of fail¬ 
ure which I shall find double difficulty in over¬ 
coming. 

I further see that there would be no sense of 
pleasure in achievement were it not for the re¬ 
sistance I overcome. The things that are easy to 
do never command my admiration either for my¬ 
self or others. Even the feeling of monotony is 
merely the outcome of actions which oft repeated 
find no sense of effort in their repetition. 

Unless, therefore, I set myself tasks that shall 

require effort, I will find life monotonous and un- 

211 


REACTIONALYSIS 


interesting. I shall find no cheerfulness or pleas¬ 
ure in life and dissatisfaction with myself. 

The effort I must put forward is therefore a 
privilege rather than a burden. It is a challenge 
which should inspire me rather than a barrier which 
should leave me forever on the uninteresting side 
of life. Effort is the means by which I may become 
a happier, bigger being; by which I may find self 
gratification. This day I will welcome effort and 
by my ready welcome of the battle send effort to 
cringing and crying for mercy. Thus shall I 
ultimately know no effort, but think in ideas of 
achievement only. 


212 


CHAPTER LIX 


FORTY-FIRST DAY—MY INFLEXIBILITY 

I see that inflexibility of character is an im¬ 
portant quality when it is founded upon right. To 
be swayed from rightful desires or sound convic¬ 
tions implies a dangerous weakness. 

Inflexibility in my principles, in my moral atti¬ 
tude, in my ethical standards will gain the respect 
and confidence of others, as I give respect to those 
in whom I find it characteristic. 

That the many are easily swayed is no excuse 
for flexibility in my decisions. 

This day I will be unswerved by those things 
which I know are contrary to my progress or well 
being. I will rest contented and feel secure in my 
knowledge of right. 

I will, however, recognize the difference between 
inflexibility and obstinacy and between strength 
of character and arbitrary use of power. I see in 

obstinacy a closing of the mind to any but one idea, 

213 


REACTIONALYSIS 


while inflexibility implies a basis in reason and de¬ 
cision. Arbitrary positions, I see, are those of 
power purely, while inflexibility implies relinquish¬ 
ment to higher powers than those of the individual. 

Without inflexibility there can be no develop¬ 
ment of character, individual skill or superiority. 
Inflexibility has made great musicians, doctors, 
preachers and business men. Without this quality 
there is no self control, but only when it is founded 
on wisdom, right and duty to others, does it reach 
its highest value as a personal possession. 


214 


CHAPTER LX 

FORTY-SECOND DAY—MY RECREATION 

I see the need of play and recreation. But I 
also see that to gain greatest enjoyment from it, 
the right to it must be earned. I further see that 
too much recreation robs it of its pleasure and its 
sense of privilege. 

My recreations may be of value to me in my life, 
if I choose them with greater wisdom. And while 
many shrewd business men hold out appeals to me 
of various kinds which seek to entice me to worth¬ 
less recreations, I shall hereafter make the most 
of my leisure, so that I may have more permanent 
value than the sorrows of the latest movie heroine. 

My health may be greatly advanced by wise 
choice of recreation. My breadth of knowledge 
may be widened by wise recreation. My memo¬ 
ries may be beautified and made immeasurably 
more interesting if I but take advantage of my 

power to cultivate wider interests. 

215 


REACTION AL Y SIS 


My choice of reading either improves me or 
wastes my time. My indoor and outdoor hobbies 
either waste or promote my health. My excur¬ 
sions are to places of high interest or trivial, easily- 
forgotten places. 

This day I will examine my recreations, plan¬ 
ning them with greater wisdom and making them 
serve me while they refresh me. I will find things 
of greatest interest to me and to others, making 
me more interesting, active and keen in all affairs 
of men. 


216 


CHAPTER LXI 


FORTY-THIRD DAY—MY INSPIRATION 

At times I find within myself a power which I 
call inspiration. If I could but know the forces 
that compose it I could call it into being at will, 
and impart it to my work. 

I see in inspiration the consciousness of power 
to achieve. I see in it the expectation of achieve¬ 
ment. I see in it the force of emotion, stirring me 
with its subtle power, tingling, prompting me to 
do, to act, to accomplish! I feel it now, this in¬ 
sight, this power. I can produce it if I will not 
stifle it. Inspiration is a force within me which is 
subject to my will and my mind. 

This day I will bring inspiration to bear on the 
tasks I wish to touch with its magic and move with 
its force. This day I will give inspiration to my 
purposes and my plans, for in inspiration I see the 
touch of sublimity which makes my thoughts trans¬ 
cend the commonplace and mount the pinnacles of 

217 


REACTIONALYSIS 


genius. Sources of inspiration abound around me 
—objects of inspiration await the touch of its wand 
—but most inspiring of all is my knowledge that I 
can thrill to hope, to achievement, to mastery by 
this power which is my very own. 


218 


CHAPTER LXII 

FORTY-FOURTH DAY—MY OPINIONS 

I find in my opinions of people and things a 
number of ideas of very strong controlling in¬ 
fluence upon me. If these opinions of mind are 
sound, as I believe they are, they are valuable as 
sources of thought and action. 

But I further notice that others are moti¬ 
vated largely by their opinions, many of which I 
have no hesitation in saying are entirely wrong. 

And so I see that our opinions are ideas to which 
we have given the force of belief, and like any 
belief we accept nothing which contradicts it. 

Are my opinions well founded and the opposite 
opinions erroneous? Do others see the error in 
my opinions to which I am blinded by belief? 

This day, I will be more judicious in stating my 
opinions. I will review them as they come to my 
mind and will modify or correct them as they ap¬ 
pear in this day of my larger knowledge. I shall 

219 


REACTIONALYSIS 


probably find that many of them were determined 
upon by me years ago and that today, if I but 
examine them, I shall find that I have long been 
guided by the limited views of my immaturity. 

My opinions largely form the outsiders’ estimate 
of my character. Do my opinions properly pre¬ 
sent me to them or to myself? Do I exercise 
sufficient care in accepting as my opinion the hasty 
thoughts of which I hear and read? My opinions 
show my depth of analysis, my clarity of under¬ 
standing, my moral standards, my vision of things. 
My opinions shout my character to the world, 
while I naively feel that, being mine, they should 
be acclaimed by all. These opinions of mine are 
important, I see, and it is high time I looked them 
over. 


220 


CHAPTER LXIII 


FORTY-FIFTH DAY—MY DELIBERATION 

I see the value of deliberate thought and action. 
Rash and hasty thought lacks accuracy and care. 
Deliberate thought gives clearer concepts, surer 
decisions. Deliberate action gives poise and 
certainty. 

Sudden impulses are the indication of strong 
and ungoverned emotions, weak and unconsidered 
thinking, uncontrolled attention. Impulsiveness 
is frequently followed by regrets, and because im¬ 
pulsive actions are unnecessary, they lower self¬ 
esteem when they are misdirected. 

This day I will be more deliberate. I will exer¬ 
cise more care in the things to which I attend; I 
will exercise greater control of attention and will 
in all my reasonings, and I will consciously direct 
my actions. To give myself new perceptions to 
strengthen my sense of deliberation, I will make 

my simplest actions deliberate. My walking, the 

221 


REACTIONALYSIS 


way I pick things up, the manner in which I ad¬ 
dress others, shall all be given a greater deliberate¬ 
ness. All shall give me the sense of control rather 
than impulsiveness. 

I see in those whom I consider mentally and 
physically strong a determined, intentional attitude 
in all their ways, and I now see that this outer 
visible evenness of manner and exactness of motion 
and speech is really an indication of inner control 
which they have acquired. 

Even now, as 1 find my conscious forces focussed 
on the idea of strong and deliberate control, I feel 
a higher sense of power within me. I can produce 
the force of will at will. This day I will employ 
my will to govern my deliberation in thought. 


CHAPTER LXIV 


FORTY-SIXTH DAY—MY FUTURE 

What I am today has been largely the result of 
my thinking up to this time. My strengths, my 
abilities, my friendships and my every situation has 
been largely governed by my own actions. 

What I will be at a future time will be governed 
by my thoughts and actions between now and then. 
Whether I succeed in my rightful purposes, 
whether I find life daily richer in beauties, labors 
and comradeships is within my power to say. 
Whether I reach a secure and calm outlook upon 
life, a wise and discerning perception, a just and 
generous attitude, a productive and progressive 
usefulness, is governed by my actions now. 

I recognize that the viewpoint which reaches 
ahead but a week or two is a narrow viewpoint; 
that the vision which perceives a nature and char¬ 
acter that the years shall produce is a finer purpose. 

223 


REACTIONALYSIS 


I see that the life that shall satisfy me then is 
greater far than this I lead today. 

This day I will create purposes into the far 
future. My future condition shall be a perception 
to modify my reactions to the things I view today. 
Respect, character, reputation are things of 
growth. Understanding and wisdom are reached 
step by step each minute. Kindness, sincerity, 
humility are developments. This day I will make 
faster progress toward my future nature and abil¬ 
ity by making each step true and sound and firm. 

My truest nature is subject to my daily dis¬ 
covery. This day will I discover in myself the fine 
and hopeful purposes that even a limited know¬ 
ledge tells me are innate within me. 


224 


CHAPTER LXV 


FORTY-SEVENTH DAY—MY SECURITY 

Common to all people, I am subject to super¬ 
stitions, most of which I do not recognize, which 
fill me with unfounded dreads of varying natures. 

I am subject to fears at times which destroy my 
thinking and acting powers, but which I always 
recognize as having origin. 

My sense of security I never know but as a feel¬ 
ing. That I am protected from all base things if 
I but obey the laws of my mind, is a truth that I 
feel, but whose origin is above my powers of analy¬ 
sis. it is natural for me to seek the origin of my 
fear, and as I analyze it, and turn the force of fear 
into one of understanding, I feel that my fear has 
disappeared indeed, and has been destroyed by the 
very force of understanding. 

Not so with security, for the more I understand 
it, the clearer is its truth apparent, and the forces 

225 


REACTIONALYSIS 


of understanding instantly return to new forces of 
solace and poise and an abiding security. 

If I meet with fear, I shall this day understand 
it and destroy it. I will put trust in the laws of 
truth, knowing my fear is a mis-relation of ideas; 
that fear is based on ignorance and security on 
truth. That to hold fear is the worst lack of in¬ 
sight into mental laws of which I can be convicted. 

Superstitions, fears and hates are reminders of 
lack of understanding, and, knowing them as such, 
I will use them as starting points for greater know¬ 
ledge; but never permit them to motivate me, for 
then I shall add error upon error to my unhappi¬ 
ness and bewilderment. 


226 


CHAPTER LXVI 


FORTY-EIGHTH DAY—MY FAITH 

Hope is more than a vain emotion to color the 
murk of half-seen reality. Hope exists. Hope is 
a force, a power, which if I apply it can overwhelm 
despair and enthrone itself and all its kindly 
friends. Hope knows no rebuff, for it lives in 
high places. Its vision encompasses eternity; its 
wisdom eternal wisdom; its knowledge is conscious¬ 
ness of the everlasting laws of right and compen¬ 
sation. 

Faith is hope that knows itself. What hope 
pictures, faith predicts. For faith knows that hope 
never overestimates its desires. Faith, born of 
obedience and humility, is knowledge and reason. 
For true faith recognizes its own reality; and, see¬ 
ing the laws that give it existence, puts trust in 
the self-same laws as real. Faith surmounts parts 
of reality, for faith is bred of all reality. No man 

exists but by faith in others and himself, and no 

227 


REACTIONALYSIS 


man can stifle this great force within him. Why 
then should I attempt it? 

Charity is not to give, but to receive. For, little 
as I may be able to help others, I lift myself to 
great heights of happiness by my small effort. In 
giving little, I gain much. In lifting a little, I 
myself rise to lofty emotions of compassion and 
love, of sympathy and a sense of glorious power. 

This day I will make greater use of my powers 
of hope and faith and charity. 


228 


CHAPTER LXVII 
FORTY-NINTH DAY—MY ASPIRATION 

Aspiration lifts my thoughts, tinges them with 
the principle of prophecy, guides my actions to¬ 
ward fine destinies. Aspiration is a force which 
prompts reactions of inspired work and creates the 
forces of hope and promised reward. The past is 
past. If I magnify its effects I build a wall be¬ 
fore the future. Aspiration surmounts any barrier 
of the past and clears my eyes to a beautiful view 
of the road before me. 

Contentment with myself may be lost in a mo¬ 
ment; but still how permanently may it abide with 
me if I will but obey, if I will but do my duty as 
my honest view presents it to me, perform my tasks 
as I see them, just do my best. If I am then found 
wanting in my own mind I charge myself with un¬ 
wise impatience, of disobedience to the law of de¬ 
velopment and evolution of human progress and 
knowledge. 


229 


REACTIONALYSIS 

If I do not confound discontent with aspiration, 
I may find these waitings and slow movings neces¬ 
sary, and save myself the unproductive and dis¬ 
turbing force of discontent. 

Aspiration may reach pinnacles while discontent 
sees only the clouds about them. This day I will 
rout discontent and turn this force into the power¬ 
ful and uplifting force of aspiration. Come Imagi¬ 
nation! Come Will! Let us see what fine thing 
we can do this day. 


230 


CHAPTER LXVIII 

FIFTIETH DAY—MY LOVE 

Love is pure consciousness, perfect understand¬ 
ing, supreme confidence, devout humility. Love 
is not blind. Love has a vision clearer than human 
eyes, an existence more lasting than human forms, 
a tenderness far gentler than human hands. 

Love is perfect as understanding is perfect, as 
will is balanced by subjugation, as self is over¬ 
whelmed in the desire to serve. Love lifts man 
more nearly to Heaven than any force within him. 

Love marks the work and ways of men; it 
changes faces and voices, it is a force so powerful 
that it may draw to itself all the hunger of hu¬ 
manity from high or lowly place. Love endures 
through centuries of time. Love finds a response 
where power and force are unanswered. 

The best beloved individual in your circle, in any 
circle, is he or she who loves the most, who serves, 

who sincerely sympathizes, who cares for others. 

231 


REACTIONALYSIS 


I must hold on to love, nurture it and trust it, 
for love will turn ugliness into beauty, failure into 
sublime success, sorrow into sympathy, and weak¬ 
ness into an unconquerable power! 


All Days must end; but e’en the Sun 
Must set ere it can rise to meet 
Another Day! 


232 


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